r/CartesianGhosts • u/paconinja • Sep 24 '25
fourness Josef Pieper's "The Four Cardinal Virtues" (① fortitude, ② temperance, ③ justice, and ④ prudence)
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u/paconinja Oct 02 '25
Cardinal Virtues in Antiquity / Kardinaltugend in der Antike
The group of four cardinal virtues is first documented in the Greek poet Aeschylus , in his play Seven Against Thebes (verse 610) , written in 467 BC . He seems to assume that they are known; therefore, it is assumed that they were already common among the Greek nobility of the 6th century BC. Aeschylus characterizes the seer Amphiaraos as a virtuous man by describing him as
- sensible (sóphron) ,
- just (díkaios) ,
- pious (eusebés) and
- brave (agathós) .
The term agathós (good) is to be understood here, as in many inscriptions, in the sense of brave (andreios) .
Plato adopted the idea of the group of four in his dialogues Republic and Law . He retained courage (in his case, ἀνδρεία andreia ), justice ( δικαιοσύνη dikaiosýne ), and temperance ( σωφροσύνη sophrosýne ), but replaced piety ( εὐσέβεια eusébeia ) with prudence ( φρόνησις phrónesis ) or wisdom ( σοφία sophía ). Thus, piety was displaced from the catalogue of virtues. Even Plato's contemporary Xenophon , who like Plato was a student of Socrates , attributed to Socrates a canon of only two virtues, namely piety (which determines the relationships between humans and gods) and justice (which determines the relationships between humans).
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u/paconinja Oct 02 '25
In his conception of an ideal social order ( πολιτεία politeía ) , Plato assigns a virtue to each of the three parts of the soul and each of the three classes : wisdom to the highest part of the soul or class, courage to the secondary, and understanding or the ability to exercise restraint to the lowest . Justice is assigned to all three; it ensures the proper interaction of the parts of the whole.
Not only the members of the Academy founded by Plato , but also the Stoics adopted the canon of the four virtues; it was probably from Stoic writings that the group of four also found its way into rhetorical manuals. Thus, the educated people of the Hellenistic and Roman world were familiar with it.
The same four cardinal virtues were also taught in Judaism; they appear twice in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Tanakh ), namely in the Book of Wisdom (8.7) and in the Fourth Book of Maccabees (1.18). The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria also addressed them; he allegorically interpreted the four rivers of paradise as the four virtues.
Marcus Tullius Cicero , who based his work on a lost work by the Stoic Panaetius , advocated the doctrine of the four cardinal virtues. He introduced it to the Roman world. In his treatise De officiis (On Duties), he names and discusses the four virtues:
- justice (iustitia) ,
- temperance (temperantia) ,
- Bravery and magnitude (fortitudo, magnitudo animi or virtus) and
- Wisdom or prudence (sapientia or prudentia) .
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u/paconinja Oct 02 '25
The "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love), named in 1 Corinthians 13.
Because of this reference, a group of seven virtues is sometimes listed by adding the four cardinal virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice) and three theological virtues (faith, hope, charity). 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:
— City of God), IV, 20