Introduction

In the course of the preceding chapters I have mentioned a number of virtues without giving a full exposition of what they were and why they should be considered virtues. It is now time to offer such an exposition and to list a number of virtues that I consider important for contemporary life.

We should first, however, note that the names of virtues are not like the names of items of furniture. All competent users of language would call a table a table (although there might be some pieces of furniture that leave us puzzled even though they are somewhat table-like). Tables are entities that exist in the world and that can, for all intents and purposes, be clearly distinguished from chairs, beds and cars. Such designations are relatively simple. Human behaviour, on the other hand, is complex. People act from a variety of motivations and their actions have a variety of effects, some foreseen and others not. It requires interpretation in order for us to make sense of all this and we use a variety of categories for this. If we see a boy scout helping a frail old lady across the street we would be inclined to interpret that phenomenon as an act of kindness but there would be plenty of scope for alternative interpretations. It might be that the boy scout wants to impress his peers, or it might be that he is motivated by a sense of duty rather than kindness.