The Tradition of Virtue

20 December 2023

The Tradition of Virtue

“The eye, to see, must be adapted to the object of its vision.  So, too, with soul; only the good may know the Good; only the pure may know the All-Pure.  Ethical purification is the process through which we become virtuous, for the sake of virtue itself, but also, and ultimately, for the sake of our ascent to the divine.  We seek metaphysical insight, knowledge of Truth, unification with the One.  This is a daunting goal; perhaps we are presumptuous to aim so high.  Nevertheless, we are moved to make the attempt.  We have been told, after all, that this is the telos toward which our human nature inclines.  Therefore, it is not impossible.  Yet it is not easy, this we have also been told.  If, then, we would undertake the journey sincerely, we must follow the road tradition has laid down for us.  The road is under our feet, and its paving stones are inscribed with instructions on how to proceed.  We must talk, they say, with virtue.”

(Pure: Modernity, Philosophy, and the One, Mark Anderson, Sophia Perennis, San Rafael, CA, 2009, page 84, ISBN: 9781597310949)

1.  The Platonic tradition is deeply rooted in virtue ethics.  Anderson views the cultivation of virtue as similar to the physical cultivation of the body.  I think Anderson means that people cultivate the strength, endurance, and beauty of the body in order to improve themselves in terms of their physical condition and appearance.  Similarly, cultivating virtue trains the soul and the soul’s characteristics, such as courage, wisdom, temperance, generosity, and so forth, so that they become second nature, they become features of a virtuous life.  This establishment of virtue allows for the soul to begin the process of philosophical ascent, ultimately culminating in uniting with the One.

The purpose of these two trainings differs.  The goal of physical training is worldly attention and acclaim.  The goal of training in the virtues is, as Anderson points out, for the sake of our ascent to the One. 

2.  Cultivating the virtues is a kind of purification.  In a Platonic context purification means to move in the direction of separating the soul from the body.  This is accomplished through the virtues by countering, or pulling away from, the natural tendency of the body to act on the basis of the body and its demands.  For example, a natural tendency of the body is anger and this is countered by the practice of temperance and wisdom.  Another natural tendency, based on the body, is to be admired for worldly attainments; it takes courage to live a life that is not based on acquiring worldly and material attainments; the virtue of courage in this kind of situation is something that every philosopher has to rely at some point in their life as demonstrated in the life of Socrates.

3.  “. . . we must follow the road tradition has laid down for us.”

This quote from Anderson brings to mind the passage towards the end of Phaedo where Socrates tells his students, who are at that moment distraught at their teacher’s imminent death, that if they follow his instructions ‘step by step’ they will be fine.  I see Socrates at that moment as not just pointing to his own teachings, but to the tradition that he inherited and upon which his own teachings are based, as are the Platonic teachings as a whole.  The origins of this tradition’s are still noticeable in the remnants of the Pythagorean and Orphic traditions.

In modernity this way of looking at spiritual practice, as a tradition that has been handed down to us, is difficult to access.  The tendency in modernity is to comprehend the past as deficient.  Viewed in this way there is an automatic suspicion that arises towards ancient teachings simply because they are ancient.  It takes the virtues of wisdom and courage to cut through our own culture’s unthinking rejection of the past and to then root ourselves in the ancient ecology of eternity that nourishes Platonic philosophy.