The Cardinal Virtues and You: Part III

Returning to the margaritas perhaps we have transported a friend to the bar in which these margaritas are consumed. This implies the acceptance of responsibility for his safe arrival at home at the end of the night. Remember his life is valuable to him, much as your is to you. You know that it is your responsibility not only to get him home, but to get him home safely. Perhaps, you encourage each other to remain sober, regardless, you know that what is due to your friend is a safe ride home and as a result, you refuse to drink more than two margaritas, as you know that anymore would impair your ability to drive and therefore, decrease the possibility of getting your friend home safely. Concern for a rightly ordered relationship with your friend makes a man just. Perhaps however, your friend likes to drink to many margaritas. You may find yourself in the middle of a very difficult situation. As a result of our communion with others we often find ourselves in difficult situations, we are tested sometimes greatly. Fortitude is the virtue that enables us to face difficulties well. Fortitude is interchangeable with courage. What is the greatest difficulty for the human person? A very common answer might be death. As stated earlier, life is naturally valuable to the well ordered conscience. However, a man of fortitude would be willing to lay down his life for a greater good. A willingness to lay down one’s life for a greater good implies that this courageous person is both vulnerable and the good sought requires a sacrifice. In order to be courageous there must be a real difficulty, one in which an individual could be overcome. This reveals a vulnerability. Which leads to the conclusion that some sacrifice will be necessary to overcome the difficulty which presents itself. Returning to our friends and their margarita’s, we can imagine that the friend who drove does not wish to have more than two margaritas, because he recognizes that he is responsible for the other. However, if the other friend decides to consume copious amounts of tequila, he may decide he would like a drinking buddy. As a result, he may begin to put pressure on the responsible driver to drink with him. This encouragement to drink more than two margaritas could be a difficulty, as the driver has struggled with alcohol use in the past and is trying to control it. In the face of the name calling and past struggles, however, the driver maintains his sobriety and is able to drive his intoxicated friend home safely. He has overcome the temptation to give into intoxication himself as a result of the virtue of fortitude. Throughout this discussion on the cardinal virtues one thing should have become quite clear. The virtues cannot be compartmentalized. They do not operate apart from each other. Fortitude requires temperance and prudence. Temperance requires prudence and fortitude and justice. They simply must function in harmony with each other. For example fortitude is necessary to possess the other three virtues. If the passions are to be properly ordered, courage is required to say no in the face of some difficulty. If right reason is to be acted upon, courage is necessary to carry that out at times. If right relationships are to be maintained courage is necessary to maintain them at times. Everyone has been in a difficult situation whether it was struggling with drinking to much, struggling to maintain a family relationship, or struggling to act on what we know to be true in a crowd of unknown people. A common denominator in rightly acting in each of those situations is fortitude. This connection of the virtues is called the unity of the virtues. Western thinkers have long held that while there are separate virtues governing different activities, they have an organic unity, which requires that if one of them is possessed, so to are the others. This understanding of the virtues and their unity is essential for the recovery of a virtuous culture. Right reason, rightly ordered passions, right relationships, and courage, depend on a willingness to live a good life. They require thought and action. In order for thought and action to be harmonious with the virtues, they must once again not only be taught, but lived out by those who are teaching them. We cannot demand virtue if we are not striving for virtue ourselves.