A Review of The Four Cardinal Virtue in Thomas Aquinas’ Disputed Questions on Virtue

Abstract

 In his Disputed Questions on Virtue, St. Thomas Aquinas argued that
temperateness, courage, justice, and practical wisdom are necessary for human flourishing.
Just as there are four faculties which contribute to our moral acts, intellect, will, appetite of
desire and appetite of aversion, so there must be four virtues to keep these faculties straight
- prudence for the mind, justice for the will, temperance for the urge to what is pleasant, and
fortitude for the instinct away from what is painful. Part of the human good is to live in
society, but living in the society needs certain relations to other people that go beyond
narrow considerations of our individual perfection. The will therefore needs to be perfected
by virtue, by which individuals conform their own pursuit of the rationally apprehended
good to the larger good of the community, whose well-being and institutional integrity
provide the context in which they can pursue their own good.