Four Cardinal Virtues Essay Research Paper In

Four Cardinal Virtues Essay, Research Paper

In our study of the four cardinal virtues we have been learning many ideas and

theories on how to live .the good life.. It was very difficult in the

beginning of this semester to define what .the good life. means. After

studying the virtues and their theories it became very clear to us what .the

good life. is all about. Josef Pieper, the author of the book we have been

studying, has made it very simple to understand how to be a good human being.

Christian thinking and morality has played a major role in the understanding of

the four virtues. The so-called four cardinal virtues that we have been studying

are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. According to Pieper these four

virtues are the key elements in trying to achieve the highest good. Pieper

believes that these virtues are necessary in order for a human being to fulfill

the Christian image of man. These virtues exercise a person.s moral,

spiritual, emotional, and physical self. Every virtue has its own importance

with prudence being the most important, or mother of all virtues. The order of

importance of these virtues is as follows, from most to least important:

prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. To study these virtues we began

with the virtue of prudence and worked our way down. We began to realize that

these virtues are very dependent on the virtues that are above in importance.

For example, fortitude depends on prudence and justice. You cannot have

fortitude without first achieving prudence and justice. This distinction makes

these virtues very interesting and as a result presents a strong case as to why

they are crucial for human beings to possess. The ability to attain all of these

virtues is something that all humans should strive for because it would be to

the best for society. In the following I will analyze each virtue separately and

show how they all tie together to form the .Christian image of man.. First I

will start with the most important virtue of them all, prudence, and then move

on to justice, fortitude, and finally temperance. The first and most important

virtue is the virtue of prudence. This is known as the mother of all virtues

because it is the first step towards working to become a good human being.

..none but the prudent man can be just, brave, and temperate, and the good

man is good in so far as he is prudent.. This quote here is the best

explanation that can be given to show the importance of prudence to the

Christian doctrine of man. From this quote we see that prudence is necessary in

order for a human being to be just, brave, and temperate. The reason prudence is

so crucial is because it is the ability to make good decisions. In order for a

human being to be able to make good decisions he or she must be able to know

what is good and what is not good. There is a very special relationship between

the virtue of prudence and the idea of good. .Classical Christian ethics

maintains that man can be prudent and good only simultaneously; that prudence is

part and parcel of the definition of goodness.. It is very important for one

to understand this unique relationship between prudence and the idea of

goodness. One cannot have one without the other. Prudence is the whole idea of

one being able to recognize what is good and always be able to act in the good

way. We will see later how this relationship is also very vital to the virtue of

justice. The virtue of prudence is the hardest to attain due to the fact that a

human being must be able to recognize what is good. This makes it necessary for

the person to also be able to know what is good and what constitutes what good

is. This is not something that we can all be able to do overnight; the ability

to know what is good is something that can only be attained through moral and

just thinking. When a person begins to recognize the good and act in moral and

just ways, that is when he or she has attained the virtue of prudence and has

become a prudent human being. It has been necessary for me to use the words just

and moral because one cannot talk about prudence without mentioning everything

it deals with. Although justice is the next virtue in the order and is dependent

on prudence, one must still use the concept of justice when explaining prudence

because that is what prudence is, just actions. ..there is no sort of

justice and fortitude which runs counter to the virtue of prudence; and that the

unjust man has been imprudent before and is imprudent at the moment he is

unjust.. Here, Pieper makes it clear to us that an imprudent man will be

unjust in his actions. To show how important prudence is to the Christian image

of man, Pieper states the following: .Prudence is the cause of the other

virtues. being virtues at all.. Well, I have already explained that for a

person to fulfill the Christian

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