Essay: Virtue

This is yet another essay I have written for my philosophy class. It is based off of a quote from C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man.

~ ~ ~

C.S. Lewis once said, “No justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous.” There is a lot of weight to this single quote from Lewis’ essay, The Abolition of Man. For instance, what is virtue? Once that question has been answered, more arise. One such question is what Lewis means by a “justification of virtue.” And of course, what will enable a man to be virtuous? In order to even begin answering the last two of these three questions, one must naturally answer the first. For many people, the nature of virtue is ambiguous. For instance, many people would agree that murder is completely wrong, but that lying is fine on occasion. This is perhaps why there are such firm laws against murder, but slightly vague ones on lying, in the form of fraud. But when all is said and done, it is the choice of the man himself that allows him to be virtuous, whether laws governing morality are placed over him or not. Rules only serve as guidelines, not as concrete restrictions. But although whether or not a man is virtuous depends on the choice of the man himself, there are ways to instill virtue in him from a young age.

Virtue is not rational, insomuch as you cannot explain what drives a man to die for his country without acknowledging the existence of something outside of observable fact. The act of being virtuous, or morally good, is not something we come by naturally. Virtue is prompted by our conscience, God’s law of morality, which demands certain actions of us which are morally good. In truth, everyone knows what is morally good, even if they do not always listen to the still small voice that teaches them. In a sense, virtue has emotional as well as cognitive properties to it, since the heart recognizes what is beautiful, and the mind seeks to copy that beautiful deed or image. Going back to the example of a man who is willing to die for his country, Lewis says in The Abolition of Man that such a man would not do such a thing out of rationality. This is because a rational man would seek his own preservation. Although he could argue that he does so for the benefit of future generations, he has not observed them and cannot therefore say whether such a drastic action as his own death for his country would, in fact, benefit them. Instead, it is out of love that he does such a thing.

While virtue is not a rational concept, a man can attempt to point out what is good and bad using his mind. He can make lists of morally good and bad actions, but this does not make him virtuous. Such a man can be an excellent philosopher but still be a scoundrel if he does not follow his own advice. So much can be seen in the life of King Solomon, in the Bible, when he became the wisest man alive, but acted unwisely in following false gods, after he was commanded not to by God. Becoming virtuous is not just a cognitive action—one must integrate all the parts of man: the mind, the body, and the heart. The mind must listen to the heart when it tells him what is good, and the body must act appropriately on what the mind knows is good.

In order to fully integrate these parts of man to become virtuous, one should preferably begin learning and practicing virtue from a young age. If a man starts learning to become virtuous as an adult, he has already become so hardened in his ways that it is difficult for him to break his habits and follow the calling of virtue. One good way to actually learn virtue is to learn through example. Reading and hearing about virtue certainly teaches about the idea of virtue, but this only engages the mind. To engage the heart, selfless love from another is required to awaken the heart to the beauty of virtue. By learning through example, the child does not simply learn what virtue is, but also how it is to be acted upon. The child, or anyone who attempts to learn virtue, should also saturate themselves in the goodness, the truth, and the beauty of God’s Word, and also in manmade art. After a while, such exposure to morally good stories and images begins to rub off on the learner.

Overall, hearing about and knowing the concept of virtue is not enough to be virtuous, just as C.S. Lewis stated. But knowing the concept is at least a start, since you can still build off of that idea and choose to live in a world filled with good, so that you may learn to be good yourself. Even if it does come down to a person’s choice as to whether or not they will not only know good, but also do good, the person must have first somehow learned not only what is good, but what good looks like in action. We learn best through imitation, which is certainly applicable to learning virtue. We are called to be a light to this dark world so that others who are lost can learn virtue through our good examples.