Essential Virtues
Students at Alberta Classical Academy schools will develop an expansive moral vocabulary. They will learn to recognize and identify a variety of virtues, understand their varied manifestations, and use them as reminders of what is good and noble. Students will strive to embody these virtues in their own lives, both through habitual practice, and through active self-reflection.
Aristotle provides an important definition of virtue that inspires our educational mission:
“ Virtue is an active condition that makes one apt at choosing, consisting in a mean condition in relation to us, which is determined by a proportion and by the means by which a person with practical judgement would determine it “
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II.6)
According to Aristotle, as well as other classical thinkers of other traditions such as Confucius, virtue is much more than rule-following. It consists in the development of intellectual and moral character whereby students develop the habits and intentions of making good moral decisions based upon clear-sighted reasoning and well-managed passions and desires. This is often done in the form of choosing the “mean” between two opposing extremes (e.g., courage as the “mean” between rashness and cowardice). Habitual practice, dedication to learning, and self-cultivation develops the active habits of virtue and judgment. The life of virtue is key to the happy life in freedom and friendship.
Among the core virtues and moral qualities that we aim to impart are the following:
Benevolence: kindness, friendship, charity, a concern for the wellbeing of others, and a willingness to give of oneself. It is the opposite of malevolence or acting badly towards others. In many classical traditions (i.e., Chinese, Western), it is the highest virtue or the completion of all the virtues. Confucius call it ren (仁), and the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers regarded friendship (philia) as the highest attainment of human excellence.
Courage: the active condition by which one chooses to endure great difficulties and frightening things for the sake of what is right. Courage is not the lack of fear but is the capacity to keep it in proportion and not be ruled by it (Aristotle, Nic Ethics, III.8). According to C. S. Lewis, courage is “the form of every virtue at its testing point.”
Discernment: clear-sightedness, sharp-perception, and sound judgment; the disciplined application of reason. Discernment is what allows us to distinguish the correct course of action, and to tell the difference between right and wrong, just and unjust, beauty and ugliness.
Diligence: the solicitude and love we bring to the pursuit of excellence; the opposite of negligence. Derived from one of the Latin words for loving (diligere), it is woven into the pursuit of every virtue, as the pursuit of excellence is continual.
Eutrapelia, or charm: the active condition of being a convivial companion, who exhibits a spirit of ease, delight, and good humour (Aristotle, Nic Ethics, IV.8). It is a mean between buffoonery and boorishness. It reminds us that the excellence of our humanity consists in conversing and sharing our lives together in friendship.
Forbearance: a capacity to endure life’s trials with grace, patience, and fortitude. Forbearance is related to other virtues, such as tolerance, perseverance, temperance, and even faith. It can be manifest as the ability to maintain an inner tranquility and resolve, despite challenging outward conditions.
Humility: understanding one’s limitations. Humility is a mean between hubris/arrogance and pusillanimity (thinking too lowly of one’s self). It is the precondition for growing in wisdom, and it leads us to approach the world with reverence and gratitude.
Integrity: the condition of being a whole and complete human being on account of one’s devotion to wisdom and righteousness. This sense of wholeness leads one to regard falling away from wisdom and righteousness not simply as error, but as a corruption and dissolution of one’s very humanity and sense of personhood. Integrity inspires forthrightness, simplicity, honesty, trustworthiness, and the courage to stand by one’s convictions.
Justice: "the perpetual and constant will to render to each one his right" (Ulpian, Digest i, 1); “to establish the parts of the soul in a natural relation of control” (Plato, Republic, 444e). Justice is the aim of rules and laws, but before that it is the virtue of those who make, implement, and adjudicate those rules and laws. Justice as a virtue is the habit and intention of rendering to each person what is due to them; this virtue is also applied inwardly, through the proper ordering of the soul. Justice reminds us that sometimes what we owe others conflicts with our own desires and interests, making justice difficult to practice. It depends on being habituated in the other virtues as well, especially temperance (which restrains our own desires) and courage (which enables us to assert the just over the unjust).
Loyalty: the active condition of persisting in an association with another for their intrinsic worth. It inspires consistency and a willingness to make sacrifices out of love and dedication.
Magnanimity, or “greatness of soul”: the active condition of seeking great things and performing great deeds. The magnanimous person has a broad-mindedness that arises from contemplation of higher things, which enables her to avoid pettiness, grievance-seeking, and keeping count of wrongs.
Propriety: appropriateness of inward feeling and outward conduct; the observance of rituals and decorum that reflects discernment of proper behaviour in specific circumstances (Cicero, On Duties, I.93). It reminds us that the good life lived in community obliges us to modulate our internal dispositions with the feelings and expectations of others, and that different circumstances oblige us to behave accordingly.
Reverence: a sense of awe and respect for those things that are higher than us and that lie beyond our control or understanding. It reminds us that we are all students and learners of traditions of wisdom that precede us and have formed who we are and may become.
Temperance: the active condition of choosing bodily pleasures in the ways that harmonize with the life of reason (Aristotle, Nic Ethics, III.10). Temperance is a mean between indulgence and asceticism. Temperance is not about denying bodily pleasures but rather in aligning them with reason to ensure freedom and stability of character. Temperance is expressed as self-control, discipline, restraint in the face of temptation, and mastery over desires and impulses.
Wisdom: the combination of reasoned, demonstrable knowledge and the apprehension of first principles of living well (Aristotle, Nic Ethics V.6—7). In a culture that divorces demonstrable knowledge (or science) from its sources, wisdom enables human beings to seek alignment with what is true, good, and just, and to avoid choosing on the basis simply of expediency or impulse.