Discuss Plato’s four “cardinal virtues.” Of the four, does the concept of justice appear the most problematic? What is justice and what does it entail?
Traditional Christianity involves three theological virtues, i.e. Hope, faith, and charity. However, the four cardinal virtues that Plato identified are thoroughly moral virtues. The word cardinal has been taken from a Latin word ‘Cardo’ that means hinge. Thus, all the other virtues depend on these four cardinal virtues – prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
Prudence is directly associated with intellect. It is the ability to identify what is right and what is wrong. It enables one to determine what his real good in a given situation is. Thus, it serves as a basis for the other three virtues. Justice is related to rights and obligations. It simply means to deliver what we owe to others. While prudence and justice give one a sense of his rightful duty, fortitude provides him with the courage to perform it. Temperance, the fourth cardinal virtue, deals with passions and desires to keep them under control. It attempts to enable a person to keep a sound balance of all the legitimate goods in his life against his growing desires.
One may call justice the most problematic virtue as it is the name of constantly dealing with the determination to give others what we owe them. Justice means to respect others’ rights regardless of their position in society or our disliking for them. It means to rise above our emotions and provide what is rightfully due. It includes paying our debts, giving people their natural rights (right to worship God), their property rights or their legal rights such as civil, contract and constitutional rights. Charity does not come under justice as it means providing more than what is due. Sometimes serving as justice can be hard as it cannot be done at the expense of the natural rights of another person.
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