The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
Aristotle
Virtues
--are particular qualities that we attribute to our thoughts, emotions, feelings, and actions.
--are qualities that exemplify whatever we consider to be moral excellence.
--are qualities that are other oriented rather than self oriented. We are focusing on the well-being of other people or things. However, we can also exhibit virtues toward ourselves. We can exhibit forgiveness toward ourselves, but while doing so, we are viewing that forgivable part of ourselves as though it is separate from the part of us that is doing the forgiving.
--are ideals toward which we strive in our image of ourselves and our behaviors.
--are behaviors such as generosity, helpfulness, forgiveness, kindness, empathy, respect, compassion, discipline, patience, service, cooperation, and tolerance.
The positive aspects of virtues.
- Virtues provide guidelines for behavior when we are not aware of our intuition. We can ask ourselves, "What would be the virtuous thing to do?" The resulting behavior may be appropriate in this situation.
The negative aspects of virtues.
- Virtues do not always provide appropriate guidance. In our desire to be a generous person, we are generous whenever possible, even in inappropriate situations.
- Virtues are perfect ideals. Therefore, when we use them as standards of our behavior, we can become perfectionistic, which is a destructive, neurotic condition.
- Virtues dwell on the other person instead of ourselves often at the expense of ourselves.
- Virtues are unreliable as guides, because each virtue has an equal and opposite virtue. Generosity is a virtue, but so is frugality. Therefore, when we try to be virtuous, we are confronted by innately contradictory guidelines.
- Virtue can become the basis of a sense of moral superiority. When we choose one virtue as important, we may judge and condemn other people by that standard.
Techniques for dealing with virtues.
- Design-work. We can generate the energy tones that correspond to a virtue which we are enacting. While enacting kindness, we generate warmth.
- - - Affirmation. "I explore virtues, and I also explore my own needs".
- - - Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves enacting particular virtues.
- - - Modeling. We can act as if we have a virtue which we are exploring.
- Intuition.
- We examine the components of virtues. Patience is a virtue, but it is not a thing in itself. Instead of trying to develop a virtue per-se, we implant the supportive thoughts.
- We balance our virtues with our own needs. When we explore the virtue of generosity, we are generous to ourselves, too.
- Judgmentalness. Judgmentalness is a conclusion that something does not exhibit characteristics that we believe that it should exhibit. We are comparing the thing to an ideal, and to our personal values. This conclusion is not merely a mental conclusion, it also contains other factors:
- - - Emotions
- - - A desire that the person be punished. It is an attitude toward a design behavior, not a person. The person is merely enacting that design behavior.
