jueves, 4 de octubre de 2018

WHAT VIRTUES MUST PEOPLE HAVE TO MAKE A BETTER WORLD.

Virtues are habits of mind, heart, and behavior. They develop through deliberate practice.
The ancient Greeks considered wisdom to be the master virtue, the one that directs all the others. Wisdom is good judgment. It enables us to make reasoned decisions that are both good for us and good for others. Wisdom tells us how to put the other virtues into practice—when to act, how to act, and how to balance different virtues when they conflict (as they do, for example, when telling the honest truth might hurt someone’s feelings).
The second virtue named is justice. Justice means respecting the rights of all persons. Since we are persons ourselves, justice also includes self-respect, a proper regard for our own rights and dignity. Schools, in their character education efforts, often center on justice because it includes so many of the interpersonal virtues. A concern for justice and the capacity for moral indignation in the face of injustice inspires us to work as citizens to build a more just society and world.
A third, much-neglected virtue is fortitude. Fortitude enables us to do what is right in the face of difficulty. The right decision in life is often the hard one. One high school captures that truth in its motto: “Do the hard right instead of the easy wrong.” A familiar maxim says, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Teen suicide has risen sharply in the past three decades; one reason may be that many young people are unprepared to deal with life’s inevitable disappointments. We need to teach our children that we develop our character more through our sufferings than our successes, that setbacks can make us stronger if we don’t give in to feeling sorry for ourselves.
The fourth virtue named is self-control (temperance). Self- control is the ability to govern ourselves. It enables us to control our temper, regulate our sensual appetites and passions, and pursue even legitimate pleasures in moderation. It’s the power to resist temptation. It enables us to wait and to delay gratification in the service of higher and distant goals. Love is the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of another. A whole cluster of important human virtues—empathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, service, loyalty, patriotism (love of what is noble in one’s country), and forgiveness make up the virtue of love. Love is a demanding virtue. If we really took seriously the familiar injunction to “love your neighbor as yourself,” would we not make every effort to avoid gossiping about others and calling attention to their faults, given how sensitive we are to such things said about us?
A positive attitude is a sixth essential virtue. If you have a negative attitude in life, you’re a burden to yourself and others. If you have a positive attitude, you’re an asset to yourself and others. The character strengths of hope, enthusiasm, flexibility, and a sense of humor are all part of a positive attitude.
Old-fashioned hard work is a seventh indispensable virtue. There is no substitute in life for work. “I challenge you,” says the great basketball coach John Wooden, “to show me one single solitary individual who achieved his or her own personal greatness without lots of hard work.” Hard work includes initiative, diligence, goal-setting, and resourcefulness.
An eighth essential virtue is integrity. Integrity is adhering to moral principle, being faithful to moral conscience, keeping our word, and standing up for what we believe. To have integrity is to be “whole,” so that what we say and do in different situations is consistent rather than contradictory. Integrity is different from honesty, which tells the truth to others. Integrity is telling the truth to oneself.
Gratitude is a ninth essential virtue. “Gratitude, like love, is not a feeling but an act of the will,” observes writer Anne Husted Burleigh. “We choose to be thankful, just as we choose to love.” Gratitude has been described as the secret of a happy life. It reminds us that we all drink from wells we did not dig. It moves us to count our everyday blessings.
Humility, the final essential virtue, can be considered the foundation of the whole moral life. Humility is necessary for the acquisition of the other virtues because it makes us aware of our imperfections and leads us to try to become a better person.

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