Virtue refers to the physical and moral courage that a person possesses in order to go to what’s good, to what corresponds to a moral and religious ideal. It’s opposed to vice.

Being virtuous requires courage (see courage), to have a strong soul (see strength) in order to overcome the vices that are obstacles to our virtue.

The definition of virtue changes according to the different visions that people have about it : the notion of virtue exists in philosophy, in religion and in politics.

In christianity, the main virtues are faith (see piety), hope (see hope), and charity (cf charity). They are obstacles against sins and allow us to get to heaven.

In politics, virtues are the love and respect for laws and one’s homeland (see justice).

In philosophy, we talk about cardinal virtues. Defined by philosopher Aristotle, these virtues refer to human virtues, they are divided in moral virtues that imply every individual’s will and intellectual virtues that imply individual’s reason (see intelligence). Cardinal virtues are courage, prudence, temperance and justice.

As we can see, there are a lot of different virtues and our way of being virtuous changes according to our religion or our philosophy. However, possessing virtues does not mean that we are perfect, or a role model for others. A virtue for an individual can hide several flaws, or a person can pretend to be virtuous while they’re actually not (for example sone can say that they’re brave while they’re actually a coward, or someone can pretend to be fair but they’re a tyrant).

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