The Book of Judges is all about God's people determining for themselves what's good (subjective good).
Each time they stray from God's will (objective good) ill befalls them.
Judges teaches us about the finite capacity of man (as a finite being situated in a particular time and context) to understand the objective good (that exists across all time and all contexts).
The Cardinal Virtues are an expression of that objective good, and the Bible the record of it's implementation (and lack thereof) across time as evidence for their truth.
The rejection of these values with enlightenment thinking (reliance on human rationality, as opposed to traditional thought), in some ways was the darkening of the human intellect by reducing it from the amassed knowledge of centuries of thought and experience, to the ability to model reality in the space between our ears in the here and now.
Objective external measures of what is good are not only important, they integral to being a successful human.
Next up the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity ;)
What the cardinal virtues allow for is any person irrespective of their own religion to find common ground on almost all issues. All that is required is reason, and hopefully by dwelling on them one can 'uncloud' their minds. Thanks for then thoughts
I would say the maximum benefit for the maximum amount of people might be an indirect benefit but definitely not the goal. The ultimate goal of virtues is to realise the Last End for which one is made
Not sure if I'm not seeing your entire reply Leon. Your last sentence seems cut off. What is the Last End?
Besides all of that, the narrative of the Hero (i.e. the Hero's journey) is the tale of someone acting as they ought to (righteousness). The righteousness of the hero is always directed towards benefitting as many people as much as possible often with severe sacrifices required of the Hero. Jesus followed this same journey, as do the heroes of many tales. The cardinal values are the means to complete the journey, but there is also the dark side of the virtues...
Compelling villians also use the cardinal values. An example of such a villian is Thanos from Infinity War (not the inferior Thanos from the next film). He encapsulates all the virtues that you've listed here. So perhaps there is more than just the virtues? Perhaps the means does not justify the end. Perhaps the sacrifices should be made from the hero, not by the 'hero' from others?
The last end would be to either see God face to face and/or be a virtuous person. They do this because they are in Jesus’ case virtuous and for the rest of us striving to be virtuous. The benefit for others is how this is manifested. Service or benefit for others is not the objective.
On Thanos you raise an interesting point. However he might emulate some of the virtuous (except justice) his psychotic focus on disorder and death implies a twisting of his purpose as a creature. In other words, he took for himself something that was not for him to take, and thus deprived himself of any ability to attain the higher virtues. Any similitude is a crude copy that does not enter into the fullness of virtue. He might attain lower virtues eg being on time or not procrastinating for instance, these are admirable but a lower order courtesy and not a virtue. Thanks for engaging on these.
I think in Thanos' mind he was bring justice to the universe. His focus was not to bring to disorder and death. In fact I truly believe that he thought he was the savior to the universe. "There are too many mouths to feed and the universe will end up like my own planet: completely desolate. Half must die for the other half to live. And the selection of who dies is completely random, i.e. without partiality." He was the embodiment of the virtues, taking off his armor and like a virtuous priest and prophet he achieved his goal and then promptly retired and stopped the massacres.
...but his goal was perverted by self-preservation and narcissism. The only sacrifice he was willing to make was his own daughter (against her will), and he tortured his other daughter continuously. The Thanos of the next movie shows us what a monstrosity he was before donning the holy-savior identity.
The Book of Judges is all about God's people determining for themselves what's good (subjective good).
Each time they stray from God's will (objective good) ill befalls them.
Judges teaches us about the finite capacity of man (as a finite being situated in a particular time and context) to understand the objective good (that exists across all time and all contexts).
The Cardinal Virtues are an expression of that objective good, and the Bible the record of it's implementation (and lack thereof) across time as evidence for their truth.
The rejection of these values with enlightenment thinking (reliance on human rationality, as opposed to traditional thought), in some ways was the darkening of the human intellect by reducing it from the amassed knowledge of centuries of thought and experience, to the ability to model reality in the space between our ears in the here and now.
Objective external measures of what is good are not only important, they integral to being a successful human.
Next up the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity ;)
What the cardinal virtues allow for is any person irrespective of their own religion to find common ground on almost all issues. All that is required is reason, and hopefully by dwelling on them one can 'uncloud' their minds. Thanks for then thoughts
To summarize these points into the 'ultimate goal' of the virtues: to benefit as many people as much as possible
I would say the maximum benefit for the maximum amount of people might be an indirect benefit but definitely not the goal. The ultimate goal of virtues is to realise the Last End for which one is made
Not sure if I'm not seeing your entire reply Leon. Your last sentence seems cut off. What is the Last End?
Besides all of that, the narrative of the Hero (i.e. the Hero's journey) is the tale of someone acting as they ought to (righteousness). The righteousness of the hero is always directed towards benefitting as many people as much as possible often with severe sacrifices required of the Hero. Jesus followed this same journey, as do the heroes of many tales. The cardinal values are the means to complete the journey, but there is also the dark side of the virtues...
Compelling villians also use the cardinal values. An example of such a villian is Thanos from Infinity War (not the inferior Thanos from the next film). He encapsulates all the virtues that you've listed here. So perhaps there is more than just the virtues? Perhaps the means does not justify the end. Perhaps the sacrifices should be made from the hero, not by the 'hero' from others?
The last end would be to either see God face to face and/or be a virtuous person. They do this because they are in Jesus’ case virtuous and for the rest of us striving to be virtuous. The benefit for others is how this is manifested. Service or benefit for others is not the objective.
On Thanos you raise an interesting point. However he might emulate some of the virtuous (except justice) his psychotic focus on disorder and death implies a twisting of his purpose as a creature. In other words, he took for himself something that was not for him to take, and thus deprived himself of any ability to attain the higher virtues. Any similitude is a crude copy that does not enter into the fullness of virtue. He might attain lower virtues eg being on time or not procrastinating for instance, these are admirable but a lower order courtesy and not a virtue. Thanks for engaging on these.
I think in Thanos' mind he was bring justice to the universe. His focus was not to bring to disorder and death. In fact I truly believe that he thought he was the savior to the universe. "There are too many mouths to feed and the universe will end up like my own planet: completely desolate. Half must die for the other half to live. And the selection of who dies is completely random, i.e. without partiality." He was the embodiment of the virtues, taking off his armor and like a virtuous priest and prophet he achieved his goal and then promptly retired and stopped the massacres.
...but his goal was perverted by self-preservation and narcissism. The only sacrifice he was willing to make was his own daughter (against her will), and he tortured his other daughter continuously. The Thanos of the next movie shows us what a monstrosity he was before donning the holy-savior identity.