HOW WE CAN CULTIVATE VIRTUE

MODERN-DAY dictionaries define "virtue" as "moral excellence; goodness."  It is "right action and thinking; goodness of character."  Lexicographer Marvin R. Vincent says that the original classical sense of the Greek word rendered "virtue" denotes  "excellence of any kind."  Not surprisingly, then, such qualities as prudence, courage, self-discipline, fairness, compassion, perseverance, honesty, humility, and loyalty have been hailed as virtues at one time or another.  Virtue has also been defined as "conformity to a standard of right."

To whose standard of excellence, goodness, and right should we conform?  "According to the dominant school of moral philosophy," said Newsweek magazine, "the skepticism engendered by the Enlightenment has reduced all ideas of right and wrong to matters of personal taste, emotional preference or cultural choice."  But is mere taste or preference a satisfactory way of determining right or wrong?  No. For us to cultivate virtue, we need a reliable standard  of good and bad-a standard by which a certain act, attitude, or quality may be judged right or wrong.

Next time: The Only True Source of Moral Standards

The Watchtower, 2001