But of the hundreds of virtues I found, only six of them were on more than half of the lists
Taking a look at those 6, I wonder if it’s possible to summarise further.
Maybe doesn’t quite cover every facet of every virtue listed, but a lot of them seem to relate to either of the following:
(1) being reliable and authentic in your words and actions (towards others that manifests as honesty and fidelity—and towards yourself it manifests as courage, to not be steered to inauthentic behaviour by reason of fear)
(2) demonstrating care for people’s welfare (towards others, that comes as compassion and consideration—towards yourself, as restraint from any harmful excess)
Scanning over the other less universal virtues, there are plenty there that could similarly be related (if possibly at a bit of a stretch) to either valuing Truth in the deep sense, or valuing the thing I’m failing to find a good word for—at the intersection of good outcomes, general welfare, and human flourishing.
The virtues of epistemic and instrumental rationality also come to mind.
It can be an interesting exercise to try to find patterns, regularity, structure, commonality among the virtues. I like your insight here.
When I tried to do this, I ended up categorizing virtues as those involving Temperament (e.g. initiative, independence, frugality, spontaneity), Social Virtues (e.g. kindness, honesty, generosity, leadership, wit), Character (e.g. humility, honor, benevolence, integrity), Attitude (e.g. hope, serenity, temperance, patience), and Intellectual Virtues (e.g. imagination, rationality, know-how, curiosity). Looking back at this, I think the Social and Intellectual virtues make sense as categories, but it’s harder to distinguish Temperament / Character / Attitude from each other, so I don’t know if that’s as helpful.
Taking a look at those 6, I wonder if it’s possible to summarise further.
Maybe doesn’t quite cover every facet of every virtue listed, but a lot of them seem to relate to either of the following:
(1) being reliable and authentic in your words and actions (towards others that manifests as honesty and fidelity—and towards yourself it manifests as courage, to not be steered to inauthentic behaviour by reason of fear)
(2) demonstrating care for people’s welfare (towards others, that comes as compassion and consideration—towards yourself, as restraint from any harmful excess)
Scanning over the other less universal virtues, there are plenty there that could similarly be related (if possibly at a bit of a stretch) to either valuing Truth in the deep sense, or valuing the thing I’m failing to find a good word for—at the intersection of good outcomes, general welfare, and human flourishing.
The virtues of epistemic and instrumental rationality also come to mind.
It can be an interesting exercise to try to find patterns, regularity, structure, commonality among the virtues. I like your insight here.
When I tried to do this, I ended up categorizing virtues as those involving Temperament (e.g. initiative, independence, frugality, spontaneity), Social Virtues (e.g. kindness, honesty, generosity, leadership, wit), Character (e.g. humility, honor, benevolence, integrity), Attitude (e.g. hope, serenity, temperance, patience), and Intellectual Virtues (e.g. imagination, rationality, know-how, curiosity). Looking back at this, I think the Social and Intellectual virtues make sense as categories, but it’s harder to distinguish Temperament / Character / Attitude from each other, so I don’t know if that’s as helpful.
https://atlas.mindmup.com/davidgross/virtues/index.html