"Progress in Virtue" by Plutarch

29 February 2024

 “Progress in Virtue” by Plutarch

I have just finished reading the essay Progress in Virtue by Plutarch which is found in Volume 1 of Moralia.  I enjoyed the essay and think it is of great value.  I say this because there is a tendency today to think of spirituality as a completely interior task.  In addition, there is the tendency to think that looking for signs of spiritual progress is a kind of attachment to ethical standards, as if that is automatically a bad thing.  Plutarch’s essay is a timely antidote to this kind of thinking.

Plutarch touches on a significant number of ways that someone on the spiritual path, which in Plutarch’s case means the Platonic Path, can recognize that they are making progress.  I’m going to highlight one example in this post:

“It is therefore imperative that we consider carefully whether, as for ourselves, we employ our discourse for our own improvement, and whether, as it affects others, we employ it, not for the sake of momentary repute, nor from motives of ambition, but rather with the wish to hear and to impart something; but most of all must we consider whether the spirit of contention and quarrelling over debatable questions has been put down, and whether we have ceased to equip ourselves with arguments, as with boxing-gloves or brass knuckles, with which to contend against one another, and to take more delight in scoring a hit or a knockout than in learning and imparting something.  For reasonableness and mildness in such matters, and the ability to join in discussions without wrangling, and to close them without anger, and to avoid a sort of arrogance over success in argument and exasperation over defeat, are the marks of a man who is making adequate progress.”

(Plutarch, Moralia Volume 1, Progress in Virtue, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1927, page 427, ISBN: 9780674992177)

1.  This is a topic that receives a lot of attention in the Platonic tradition.  For example, the dispute between the Philosophers and the Sophists, frequently mentioned in Plato’s Dialogues, is an important example of this ongoing discussion.  The Sophists were skillful at rhetoric and boasted that they could win either side of any argument.  That means that they were not interested in truth or in using discussion as a means of accessing spiritual realities; the Sophists were only interested in worldly gain.

2.  I think the key to acquiring this ability to enter into philosophical discussions without getting sidetracked by desires, such as the desire to win the argument, is to cultivate the mind that is equally pleased whether or not the truth is uncovered by one’s own argument or by the argument of another.  It is the truth that matters. 

3.  In contemporary society the distinction between these two approaches is often seen by contrasting a genuine philosophical discussion with a formal debate.  In a formal debate, whether in a High School debating society or done at Oxford, the winner is a winner simply because they have followed the rules of the debate and have skillfully used rhetorical devices to convince others and/or undermine their opponent.  It is a performance, a mimic of a genuine discussion. 

This is also the overwhelmingly dominant mode in political discussions which are often nothing more than propaganda.

4.  One way of cultivating the ability to accept that someone else has shown the weakness of one’s own view or argument, and further, that another view or argument is more insightful, is to cultivate happiness at other people’s success.  Happiness at other people’s success happens spontaneously when a friend of ours, for example, gets the job they applied for.  It also happens in situations where someone we know acquires some skill they have been working on, such as cooking or playing a musical instrument, and so forth. 

So we are aware of what it feels like, both in body and mind, to be at ease with other people’s success and progress.  This can be applied to philosophical discussions; I often think of this as foundational for dialectic.  But because we are heavily invested in, and strongly identify with, our ideas, it is often more difficult to feel pleased that someone has raised a valid point, one that we have not thought of before, especially when their view is at odds with our own view.  Being aware of this, it is possible to let our negative feelings go.  We can do this by saying something like, “That’s a good point.  I haven’t thought of that before.  I’ll have to give that some thought.”  Once we start using these kinds of responses it becomes surprisingly easy to follow the teachings that Plutarch has offered in this essay.

5.  The whole essay by Plutarch is worth reading and applying to one’s own awareness of where one is on the spiritual path.  Plutarch appears to be intimately familiar with these various measures of progress; I mean he seems to be speaking from his own experience.  Because of this Plutarch is sympathetic with the ups and down of spiritual progress; I have mentioned on this blog before that my own progress on the path has been something like five steps forward, two steps back.  But the advantage of knowing what to look for in terms of spiritual progress is that even when one suffers setbacks, one knows how to start moving forward again.