Cardinal virtues


Four cardinal virtues were recognized by Plato, and in traditional Christian theology:
These principles derive initially from Plato in Republic Book IV, 426–435 . Cicero expanded on them, and Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas adapted them while expanding on the theological virtues.
The term cardinal comes from the Latin cardo ; virtues are so called because they are regarded as the basic virtues required for a virtuous life. They also relate to the Quadrivium.

In classical antiquity

The four cardinal virtues appear as a group long before they are later given this title.
Plato identified the four cardinal virtues with the classes of the city described in The Republic, and with the faculties of man. Plato narrates a discussion of the character of a good city where the following is agreed upon. “Clearly, then, it will be wise, brave, temperate , and just.” Temperance—Cicero and Plato sometimes preferred the word sōphrosynē—was common to all classes, but primarily associated with the producing classes, the farmers and craftsmen, and with the animal appetites, to whom no special virtue was assigned; fortitude was assigned to the warrior class and to the spirited element in man; prudence to the rulers and to reason. Justice stands outside the class system and divisions of man, and rules the proper relationship among the three of them.
Plato sometimes lists amongst the cardinal virtues. He especially associates holiness with justice, but leaves their precise relationship unexplained.
In Aristotle's Rhetoric we read: “The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom.”
The Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero, like Plato, limits the list to four virtues:
Cicero discusses these further in De Officiis.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius discusses these in Book V:12 of Meditations and views them as the "goods" that a person should identify in one's own mind, as opposed to "wealth or things which conduce to luxury or prestige."
The cardinal virtues are not listed in the Hebrew Bible, but they are in the deuterocanonical book, Wisdom of Solomon which in 8:7 reads, "She teaches temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life".
They are also found in 4 Maccabees 1:18–19 which relates: “Now the kinds of wisdom are right judgment, justice, courage, and self-control. Right judgment is supreme over all of these since by means of it reason rules over the emotions.”
Catholic moral philosophy drew from all of these sources when developing its thought on the virtues.

In Christian tradition

was the first to use the expression “cardinal virtues.” “And we know that there are four cardinal virtues temperance, justice, prudence, fortitude.”
Augustine of Hippo, discussing the morals of the church, described them:
The "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, named in 1 Corinthians 13.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Because of this reference, a group of seven attributes is sometimes listed by adding the four cardinal virtues and three theological virtues.
Together, they compose what is known as the seven virtues. While the first four date back to Greek philosophers and were applicable to all people seeking to live moral lives, the theological virtues appear to be specific to Christians as written by Paul in The New Testament.
Efforts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues differ. Augustine sees faith as coming under justice. Beginning with a wry comment about the moral mischief of pagan deities, he writes:
Dante Alighieri also attempts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues in his Divine Comedy, most notably in the complex allegorical scheme drawn in Purgatorio XXIX to XXXI. Depicting a procession in the Garden of Eden, Dante describes a chariot dragged by a gryphon and accompanied by a vast number of figures, among which stand three women on the right side dressed in red, green and white, and four women on the left, all dressed in red. The chariot is generally understood to represent the holy church, with the women on left and right representing the theological and cardinal virtues respectively. The exact meaning of the allegorical women's role, behaviour, interrelation and color-coding remains a matter of literary interpretation.
Later, in the High Middle Ages, some authors opposed the seven virtues to the seven capital sins. However, “treatises exclusively concentrating on both septenaries are actually quite rare.” and “examples of late medieval catalogues of virtues and vices which extend or upset the double heptad can be easily multiplied.” And there are problems with this parallelism.

Contemporary thought

Jesuit scholars Daniel J. Harrington and James F. Keenan in their ‘‘Paul and Virtue Ethics’’ argue for seven "new virtues" to replace the classical cardinal virtues in complementing the three theological virtues, listed as "be humble, be hospitable, be merciful, be faithful, reconcile, be vigilant, and be reliable," although they don’t explain why it has to be an either/or matter of replacing the cardinal virtues rather than supplementing them.

Allegory

The Cardinal Virtues are often depicted as female allegorical figures and were a popular subject for funerary sculpture. The attributes and names of these figures may vary according to local tradition.
In many churches and artwork the Cardinal Virtues are depicted with symbolic items:
Notable depictions include sculptures on the tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and the tomb of John Hotham. They were also depicted in the garden at Edzell Castle.
Iustitia Fortitudo Prudentia Temperantia

Allegories of the virtues on the facade of the Gesuati church in Venice
Allegories of the virtues on the facade of La Rochelle city hall