Virtue

Virtue, in philosophy, the conformity of life and conduct with the principles of morality. (Read Peter Singer’s Britannica entry on ethics.) An enumeration of four cardinal virtues is said to go back to Socrates and is certainly to be found in Plato and Aristotle. These are prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice and are considered natural, or cardinal (from Latin cardo, “hinge”), virtues because on them all lesser attitudes hinge. To these four, Christianity added the...