Virtue means excellence to do something well. A virtue is a trait or quality deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. The opposite of virtue is vice.
There are two types of virtues:
- Moral Virtue – Virtue of character.
- Intellectual Virtue – Virtue of thought and mind
MORAL VIRTUE
- Moral virtue aims at the ‘mean’ between extremes.
- While mathematical mean is absolute, moral mean is relative.
- Every virtue us between two vices.
- This between is not mediocrity – the mean is an excellence
POSSIBLE MORAL POSITIONS
- Absolutely Absolute – There is one right way for everyone.
- Absolutely Relative – There is no right way. Everyone does what he/she feels like doing.
- Relatively Absolute – Absolute because everyone ought to develop virtue. Relative because everyone develop virtue according to their circumstances.
INTELLECTUAL VIRTUE
- Learned by teaching and not by training.
- Not a “mean between extremes”, but aims at an extreme: more knowledge and understanding is always better,
INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES
- Techne – Art,skill, applied science; knowing how to bring change in the world. For eg. if we know how to make a sandwich, we are changing the world from one which does not have a sandwich to one that has. We used techne to satisfy our hunger.
- Phroneses – “Practical wisdom”; knowing weather and why to do something. Techne and Phroness go hand in hand and deal with change.
- Nous – Initiative knowledge; insight; understanding; grasp without thinking.
- Episteme – Logical reasonong of the thing you grasp.
- Sophia – Theoretical wisdom; combination of nous and episteme.
Thinking Beyond Science 
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