What are the virtues of a person

With the term virtue is understood the disposition of mind oriented to the good. The ability of a man to excel at something, to perform a certain act optimally, to be virtuous. In its etymology, virtue derives from the Latin virtues, that is, virility, which in turn comes from vir (man), to better express those typically masculine characteristics of physical strength and bravery.

Instead, in modern language virtue is the quality of moral excellence, both for men and women. The term commonly refers to a characteristic trait considered positive. Virtues are understood as positive gifts of moral excellence as opposed to the practice of vice, which constitute a way of being perfect and exemplary. In this Psychology-Online article, we will see what are the virtues of a person, what they are and some examples.

Index

1. What are the virtues
2. Classification of virtues
3. The wisdom
4. Courage
5. The humanity
6. Justice
7. Temperance
8. the transcendence

Since ancient times there was already talk of the qualities and virtues of people. Next, we will see what the virtues are through different ancient models.

Platonic-Aristotelian ethics

The Platonic-Aristotelian elaboration of the concept of virtue starts from the cultural premises of the archaic and classical Greek world, but goes beyond them and accentuates the importance of man's intellectual gifts.

For Plato, virtue corresponds to the control of the rational part of the soul over the passions. Four main virtues are indicated for the first time:

1. Temperance: moderation of desires that, if excessive, lead to irregularity.
2. Courage or strength of mind: necessary to carry out virtuous behaviors.
3. Wisdom: understood as control of the passions and the basis of all other virtues.
4. Justice: the balance of all the other virtues present in the virtuous man and in the perfect state.

According to Aristotle, virtue is a condition of what arises between two extremes, which is why he defines two types of virtues:

• intellectuals: the exercise of reason that presides over knowledge, that is, the intellect, science and wisdom.
• Morales: domain of reason over sensitive impulses. Ethical virtue consists in reducing the faculty of desire to the dictates of reason. This virtue is obtained with habit. In this article, we tell you what are the moral values: list and examples.

christian thought

Later, Christian thought defined virtue as a habitual and firm disposition to do good. It allows the person, not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The end of a virtuous life is to become like God. Two types of virtues are distinguished.

• human virtues: firm attitudes that regulate our actions, order the passions and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. There are four cardinal human virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
• Theological virtuesThey refer directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in relation to the Holy Trinity and they found, animate and characterize the moral action of the Christian. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.

One of the main goals of positive psychology is to try to understand what makes life worth living. In this scenario, the concept of "strengths" and "potentialities", as paths through which to get to acquire the virtues.

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman (2004) identify six categories of virtues, taken from the classical models just presented, within which the positive character resources are classified. The two authors took into consideration the cultures that most influenced the history of man, following the great traditions of ancient Greece, Christianity and Islam. They also supported their hypotheses by concepts expressed by Confucianism and Taoism for China and Buddhism and Hinduism for South Asia.

In this way, lists of similar virtues have been created, grouped into six broader concepts called "nuclear virtues". Thus, these hierarchically superior categories are wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. In the following sections we will explain each of them in detail.

Wisdom is one of the best virtues of a person. This virtue can be defined as knowledge that has been hard fought for and then used for good. A form of noble intelligence in the presence of which no one resents and everyone appreciates. The strengths contained in wisdom are those that involve the acquisition and use of knowledge in human affairs.

In this case, some examples of a person's virtues would be creativity, curiosity, judgment, and perspective.

Courage is one of the good virtues of a person. Following Putnam's (1997) intuitions, it is possible to delineate three different categories of this virtue:

• physical value: search for physical well-being. They satisfy the need for security.
• Moral value: maintaining your authenticity and ethical integrity despite the risk of clashing and losing friendships or prestige; a kind of shout out of the chorus but in harmony with the yes and with doing the right thing.
• psychological value: It arises when facing debilitating illnesses such as harmful situations and habits. Courage is thus outlined as the virtue that always means "doing the right thing, even when there is much to lose." In this bravery test you can test your courage.

Among the list of virtues of a person, it is worth noting the importance of humanity. This virtue refers in a particular way to those obviously and sincerely altruistic behaviors, devoid of any expectation or benefit and totally unrelated to a cost-benefit analysis.

These behaviors are manifested through the exercise of reason and are studied through the observation of altruistic and prosocial behaviors.

Among the qualities and virtues of a person, the notion of justice undoubtedly stands out. A virtue that consists of putting certain decisions into practice in order to protect something that is intuitively correct. The potentialities that are part of it are manifested mainly in civic actions.

There are different modalities through which justice is imparted and related, such as the family, the community, the nation and the world.

Another of the strengths and virtues of a person is temperance. This virtue is defined as the ability to control excesses driven by one's own impulses and emotions, thus showing the ability to self-regulate, even in the absence of external guidance.

The inhibition of one's own instincts and of one's own most pleasant appetites. For this reason, temperance is essential to live in harmony with society.

To finish the list of virtues of a person we will talk about transcendence. Peterson and Seligman understand this virtue as the connection to something bigger than ourselves, the existence of a meaning in one's life provided by something that does not need to be ultraterrestrial or divine, but that inspires our path and makes us grateful and confident of what around us.

In this sense, it is emphasized that transcendence is distinguished from religiosity and spirituality. In general, it is about potentialities that transcend us, connecting us to something vaster and more permanent. For example, other people, the future, evolution, the divine, and the universe. Discover in this article the relationship between psychology and spirituality: difference and benefits.

This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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• Laudadio, A., Mancuso, S. (2015). Handbook of Positive Psychology. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Peterson, C., Seligman, M. AND. Q. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.