"How you can attach a moral quality to "ethereal" is beyond me. I've looked up synonyms from a dozen sources and find nothing remotely resembling "virtuous".
Of course we could address virtuous men or virtuous deeds, the ethics of one group or another but in practicality we no little about our fellows and their deeds. We know nothing of hidden agendas and motives, so our judgment of such matters could be completely flawed, at least I feel confident in saying it would fall short of 100% over the course of a life time.
So what can we say of virtue. We can’t say it serves the substantial interests of individual human beings to conduct themselves in a virtuous manner. We can value virtue but we can’t say virtue is synonymous with value. Values can include many things exclusive of virtue. In fact, some people would label the man attempting to live a virtuous life as naïve and devalue his efforts in the face of strategic interests. Individuals, cultures and subcultures are distinguishable by differences in values and preferences. Virtue, however, is recognized as identical across culture, among and between individuals, through out time and circumstance regardless of the level of development for one society or another.
Virtue is lying out there, in the ether, for us to draw upon at any time, place, or circumstance. In the ideal forms no one disputes charity, kindness, justice, hope, and honor to name a few … virtues we may know without holding, seeing them, or proving them. |
