Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of virtue. When Socrates asked the question ‘How should man live?’ Plato and Aristotle answered that man should live a life of virtue. Plato claimed there were four great virtues - Temperance, Justice, Prudence and Courage and the Christian Church added three more - Faith, Hope and Love. But where does the motivation for virtue come from? Do we need rules to tell us how to behave or can we rely on our feelings of compassion and empathy towards other human beings? Shakespeare’s Iago says “Virtue! A fig! ‘tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners. ” So is virtue a character trait possessed by some but not others? Is it derived from reason? Or does it flow from the innate sympathies of the human heart? For the last two thousand years philosophers have grappled with these ideas, but now in the twenty first century a modern reappraisal of virtue is taking the argument back to basics with Aristotle. With Galen Strawson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading; Miranda Fricker, Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London; Roger Crisp, Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for |
| 0:45.3 | I hope you enjoy the program. |
| 0:48.0 | Hello when Socrates asked the question how should man live |
| 0:51.4 | Plato and Aristotle answered that man should live a life of |
| 0:54.1 | virtue. Plato claimed there were four great virtues, temperance, justice, prudence and |
| 0:58.6 | courage and the Christian church added three more, faith, hope and love. But where does the motivation for virtue come from? Do we need |
| 1:05.8 | rules to tell us how to behave, or can we rely on our feelings of compassion and empathy towards |
| 1:11.1 | other human beings. |
| 1:12.8 | Shakespeare's Yago said, virtue a fig. |
| 1:15.7 | It is in ourselves and that we are thus or thus. |
| 1:18.2 | Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners. |
| 1:22.0 | So is virtue a character tray possessed by some but not |
| 1:24.4 | others? Is it derived from reason or does it flow from the innate sympathies of the |
| 1:29.0 | human heart? For the last 2,000 years philosophers have grappled with these ideas, but now in the 21st century |
| 1:34.4 | a modern re-appraisal of virtue is taking the argument back to the Greeks with Aristotle. |
| 1:39.6 | We'd me to discuss virtue of the philosophers Gen Strossen, professor of philosophy at the University of Reading, |
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