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Augustine on the Unity and the Interconnection of the Virtues*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

John P. Langan S.J.
John P. Langan S.J.
Affiliation:
Woodstock Theological Center, Washington, D.C. 20057
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Extract

The claim that all the virtues are somehow one is advanced in different ways by Socrates and Plato, by Plotinus and Augustine, and by Aquinas. The doctrine of the unity and the interconnection of the virtues is thus common to a number of major thinkers in both ancient and medieval philosophy. But it has hardly been a fashionable view in recent philosophy, and it is apt to seem paradoxical. The purpose of this essay is to indicate the structure of the doctrine as Augustine expounds it and to indicate its relevance to clarifying and making plausible certain other ethical doctrines in Augustine's thought.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 72 , Issue 1-2 , April 1979 , pp. 81 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1979

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References

1 Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography (New York: Holt, 1916) 146–64Google Scholar.

2 Penner, Terry, “The Unity of Virtue,” PhRev 83 (1974) 40Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., 41.

4 Ibid., 45.

5 Ibid., 67.

6 For one suggestion of the role that virtues play in the formation of our moral judgments according to Augustine, cf. Gilson, Etienne, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine (trans. Lynch, L. E. M.; New York: Random House, 1960) 131Google Scholar.

7 Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 6.13; Aquinas, Thomas Summa Theologiae 1–2.65.

8 Augustine, Letter 167, in Letters (trans. Parsons, S.N.D., Sister Wilfrid; New York: Fathers of the Church, 1955) 4. 34Google Scholar. All subsequent references to this letter are given in the text by indication of chapter numbers.

9 For an introduction to the problems, cf. Vlastos, Gregory, “The Third Man Argument in the Parmenides” PhRev 63 (1954) 319–49Google Scholar, and “The Unity of the Virtues in the Protagoras,” Review of Metaphysics 25 (1972) 415–58Google Scholar.

10 Plato Protagoras 349D–53B.

11 Aristotle makes this same sort of move in his discussion of the interdependence of prudence and the moral virtues in Nicomachean Ethics 6.13.1144b 10–17.

12 Where did it go?

13 Cf. Aquinas, Thomas Summa Theologiae 1–2.71.4 ad 1.

14 Augustine On the Morals of the Catholic Church chap. 15 (trans. Stothert, R., in Basic Writings of Saint Augustine, ed. Oates, Whitney J.; New York: Random House, 1948) 1Google Scholar. 331–32.

15 Something like this view is attributed to Aquinas by Gerard Gilleman, S.J., The Primacy of Charity in Moral Theology (trans. Ryan, S.J., William F., and Vachon, S.J., Andre; Maryland: Westminster, 1959) 35–59Google Scholar.

16 Since Latin lacks an indefinite article, a good case can be made for translating this clause: “Because charity itself is virtue.” This translation, which affirms the identity thesis, is equally well based on the Latin text and is more theologically pointed.

17 Augustine Enchiridion 31.117 (PL 40. 286; trans. Outler, Albert C., in LCC; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1955) 7. 409Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., 32.121 (PL 40. 288); LCC 7. 411.

19 Augustine Contra Julianum Eclanum 4.21 (PL 44. 749). Author's translation.

20 Cf. Burnaby, John, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938) chap. 9Google Scholar.