Classical Gasp
At my age I feel a mix of joy and embarrassment when I first encounter wisdom that’s thousands of years old. Joy because I’m grateful I didn’t miss out on it. Embarrassed because why didn’t I pick up on it years ago?
In the course of reading a number of articles about masculinity (and the supposed crisis of it American males are suffering) I found a column by the consistently compelling conservative evangelical David French in which he mentions, almost as an aside, the four cardinal virtues, the cultivated habits of mind hailed as ideal in Plato’s Republic and later, at much greater length, in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
Called cardinal because they’re considered the foundation of all other virtues, the big four are:
Prudence, in our own time more aptly called wisdom, defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “the ability to use knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.”
Justice, in our own time more aptly called fairness, defined by Cambridge as “the quality of treating people equally or in a way that is right or reasonable.”
Courage, which Cambridge defines as “the ability to control [one’s] fear in a dangerous or difficult situation.”
And temperance, or self-restraint, which Cambridge defines as “control of [one’s] own behavior.”
I suppose my ignorance of the cardinal virtues could be forgiven if Plato and Aristotle were the only sources; philosophy isn’t my strength. But the four virtues aren’t just an ancient Greek idea, or confined to the philosophical realm. They were also endorsed by the Romans, principally Cicero and later that Stoic hero of many a tech bro, Marcus Aurelius; the compilers of the Biblical Apocrypha (Wisdom of Solomon 8:7, 4 Maccabees 1:18–19); and the Catholic Church (via no less an eminence than Thomas Aquinas).
No doubt these brilliant men were isolated voices amid a massive chorus of less astute brethren whose idea of masculinity more closely reflected — and celebrated — the crude, impulsive, and often violent nature of boys. Clearly they failed to persuade their societies that inculcating the four virtues is advantageous to all, because if we think our society is crude, impulsive, and violent, compare it to theirs.
Thanks to the Enlightenment and the adoption of its values in much of the west, we’re moving beyond the feral understanding of what it means to be a man, despite the backlash that prompted French to write his op-ed. As he asks, in hopes of finding common ground with acolytes of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, “Regardless of your definition of masculinity, is there any world or any relevant ideology in which a prudent, just, temperate and courageous man isn’t a good man?”
The kicker is that becoming a prudent, just, temperate, and courageous man takes time. You don’t find many 18 year-olds with those attributes. And if they get sucked into America’s cult of adolescent masculinity, chances are they’ll never leave — and a growing chorus of male influencers (Andrew Tate being an extreme example) is encouraging just that. From my perspective, that’s reason enough to reintroduce classical works to middle school and high school curricula. Where else are boys going to hear about this stuff? I’m highly literate and didn’t hear about it myself until a few days ago — as an old man, when the cardinal virtues should be so ingrained they’re virtually instinctive (which I’d like to think they are in spite of my ignorance).
So my thanks to French and to everyone patiently educating young men to embody the cardinal virtues.
