Can Virtue Be Taught Essay
Can virtue be taught? Or is it something that we have innately?
“At the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue." This is a quote from Socrates defining virtue. “This is not simply splitting the difference between two extremes. For example, generosity is a virtue between the two extremes of miserliness and being profligate. Further examples include: courage between cowardice and foolhardiness and confidence between self-deprecation and vanity. In Aristotle's sense, virtue is excellence at being human.” This is Socrates belief on what virtue is, that It is being fully human, a steady medium. But the question here today is not what virtue is, the question is whether we as humans are born with virtue, or we attain it from some higher influence. Today I will explain how we have the ability to distinguish Virtue and Sin innately, and that we can also learn Virtue from an outside influence.
In the Garden of Eden as you all know, there were two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and eve both ate of this tree and were cursed out of the Garden. It gave us the knowledge of good and evil. We were now accountable for our actions, because we were without …show more content…
We can learn virtue from outside influences like other people. Socrates believed that in order to teach something you had to know everything about the thing that you were teaching. But this simply isn’t true as there are things that we don’t know of that can be taught. Take God for instance. Mankind can never fully comprehend who God is or what he is, but we can still learn about him. This is the same for virtue. We can be taught virtue from people who aren’t perfect. Virtue can also be taught directly from God himself, through the Bible and the Holy
“At the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue." This is a quote from Socrates defining virtue. “This is not simply splitting the difference between two extremes. For example, generosity is a virtue between the two extremes of miserliness and being profligate. Further examples include: courage between cowardice and foolhardiness and confidence between self-deprecation and vanity. In Aristotle's sense, virtue is excellence at being human.” This is Socrates belief on what virtue is, that It is being fully human, a steady medium. But the question here today is not what virtue is, the question is whether we as humans are born with virtue, or we attain it from some higher influence. Today I will explain how we have the ability to distinguish Virtue and Sin innately, and that we can also learn Virtue from an outside influence.
In the Garden of Eden as you all know, there were two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and eve both ate of this tree and were cursed out of the Garden. It gave us the knowledge of good and evil. We were now accountable for our actions, because we were without …show more content…
We can learn virtue from outside influences like other people. Socrates believed that in order to teach something you had to know everything about the thing that you were teaching. But this simply isn’t true as there are things that we don’t know of that can be taught. Take God for instance. Mankind can never fully comprehend who God is or what he is, but we can still learn about him. This is the same for virtue. We can be taught virtue from people who aren’t perfect. Virtue can also be taught directly from God himself, through the Bible and the Holy