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CHAPTERI F 0 U R The Medieval Debate on the Connection of the Virtues Some people can be counted on to do the right thing. They enjoy good food and take pleasure in their bodies, but they are not intemperate . They are not incontinent and at the mercy of their emotions, but bravely face adversity. They are not greedy, but treat other people fairly. Day in and day out, they know what needs to be done to lead a worthy life. We describe people who behave this way as morally virtuous- their actions are dictated by the cardinal virtues of temperance, courage, justice, and prudence . Are those virtues essentially connected? If someone is just, will he or she also be courageous? Aristotle thinks so, and speaking for the Christian theological tradition, Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory agree that the virtues are connected.l Augustine writes: "in like manner, although the virtues in the human soul each has its own different meaning, yet they are in no way separated from each other; so that whenever people are equal in courage, they are also equal iIi prudence, temperance, and justice."2 For Aristotle, the connection is part of a harmonious picture ofthe development ofvirtue. An excellent human being naturally desires the good; practical wisdom is the intellectual virtue that dictates acts by means of which goodness is achieved, and habitual virtues are the products of good training and the exercise of repeated acts of practical wisdom. Thus in a well-functioning human being, discerning practical wisdom-or prudence-will naturally produce both justice and courage (Etk. Nic. 6.13. 1144b30-1145a6). For Christian theology, the unity of the virtues is viewed not as a consequence of the proper functioning of human nature and human intellect, but as the result ofthe unity of a single theological virtue, the virtue of love, or charity (cariI 40 41 I The Medieval Debate tas), which is seen as a necessary and sufficient cause of every and all virtue. Without love there can be no virtue; if charity is once postulated, every other virtue follows.3 Since Aristotle and the Fathers of the Church agree on this central point, what issues can arise for Christian Aristotelianism ? The answer is that medieval Scholastics disagreed as much about the proper interpretation of Aristotle and the Fathers as about the consequences oftheir views. As we shall see, they point, for example, to other texts from Augustine where he expresses reservations about the thesis that the virtues are connected.4 Indeed , the question whether the virtues are connected was a standard and an unusually fruitful topic of controversy in the Middle Ages. Writing in the middle of the twelfth century, Peter Lombard , the author of the standard medieval textbook on theology, tells us that it was a customary topic for discussion (Sent. III d.l. c.l, II: 202), though he himself provides us only with citations from authorities in favor of the view that the virtues are connected . Jerome says that all virtues adhere together; ifone virtue is lacking, all will be absent. Augustine says that charity is the mother of all virtues; if it is present, what can be lacking? To the degree that it is absent, there will be vice.5 Though Aristotle's conclusion agreed with those of the Fathers , when his ethical and metaphysical works became available , it was clear that his reasons for maintaining that conclusion were very different from those of Christian religious thinkers. For Aristotle, the unity of the virtues derives primarily from the unity of prudence, or right reason, directing us toward acts that lead to goodness (Eth. Nic. 6.13.1145al). For the Fathers, the unity of the virtues derives from the unity of charity, or love of God. The Fathers emphasize love, or right willing; Aristotle, prudence (phronesis), which is the intellect deliberating about means to ends, a practical intelligence that grasps particulars. This difference in emphasis explains one focus of the debate on the connection of the virtues: an attempt to delineate the comparative roles of will and intellect in moral life. Aristotle's example as well as his reasoning prompted debate . Neither he nor the other good pagans familiar to Christian scholars had been baptized. Since he did not have infused goodness , it would appear that he had no virtue, and yet his ethical wisdom was generally (though not universally) recognized. Moreover , Aristotle was primarily concerned with the virtues of the citizen and with intellectual virtues, not with such...

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