personal virtues

          In this chapter on “Personal Virtues” from the text Real American Ethics comes the idea of personal virtues, which Borgmann states as wisdom, courage, friendship, economy, and grace.  In this chapter Albert Borgmann splits up his description of the five personal virtues into individual sub-chapters.  Within each sub-chapter Borgmann is able to go into detail about what the problems are in our world today with each virtue and what we are doing as a society that he sees as not right.  He also explains how everyone knows of these virtues but we rarely give them a place in our lives.  He also believes that among these virtues, not one has suffered more than the virtue of wisdom.  This is sad because for some of the most famous philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, wisdom was the most important of all the virtues.  Borgmann’s main issue with our world today is described within this chapter and how these personal virtues are becoming less and less of a true part of our daily lives and as Borgmann believes, this is not a good thing. 

            Albert Borgmann is very critical of our society when he explains his chapter on personal virtues.  The first virtue that he discusses is the virtue of wisdom, which many believe is the most important of all the personal virtues.  Plato made it clear that wisdom was the most important of all the cardinal virtues to him and Aristotle also recognized its importance.   Borgmann then goes into some details about how general wisdom has decreased over the years when he says, “more than 70 percent of the population knows that light travels faster than sound and the earth goes around the sun.”  That is some very common knowledge that I feel everyone should know but it is not surprising to hear that when you hear people talk in todays world.  He also states that only half of people know that electrons are smaller than atoms and that it takes the earth a year to travel around the sun.  The next personal virtue that Albert Borgmann goes into detail about is the virtue of courage.  He explains that courage was the defining virtue of the hero.  Borgmann again goes back to the days of Aristotle and explains that in his time and in the heroic age, courage was a defining Christian virtue.  This was especially due to the fact that the Roman Empire was persecuting the Christians and if you didn’t have courage you would have never stayed with the faith of Christianity.  However, during this time of the Roman Empire was not the only generation in which people have faced challenges and needed to act with courage.  Borgmann’s argument however is not that we are not faced with challenges today.  Instead his argument is that courage has become superfluous.  One of the questions that he raises is “if learning physical courage is good for something else, why not learn the specific skill that is needed or that something?”  Borgmann also makes a great point when he says, “There is a principle of symmetry between reality and humanity that surfaces here.  Great persons require great contexts.  The principle of symmetry underscores another point.  We have allowed to pass away not just a virtue but also a kind of reality.”  The next personal virtue that Albert Borgmann enters into is that of friendship.  Most people may not think of friendship as a type of virtue but instead more of a relationship.  In order for there to be friendship, there are four criteria that the relationship must have and that is for first they have to be one another’s equals, second they must be devoted to each others moral advancement, third they must share a concern for a common good, and lastly they must simply enjoy each others company.  Borgmann then enters the levels of friendships and explains that lesser friendships come and go and they are more like attachments.  However for more serious friendships these can leave scars and cause serious pain.  The idea of friendship has changed dramatically over the last couple years with the advancement of the internet and websites such as Facebook.  These websites allow for people to stay close and remain in touch over long distances but it also is not as personal as seeing each other face to face and hanging out on a regular basis.  We as a society are becoming more in tune with things such as Facebook than we are with actual friendships.  We see people everywhere looking at their cell phones rather than making eye contact and talking to people as we walk places and it is only going to get worse.  Albert Borgmann also talks about the personal virtue of economy.  This is not in the sense of money but more in the sense of householding.  He claims that before there can be a house there has to be a shelter for the household, which is a fundamental feature of human culture.  His main argument in this sub-chapter is that the television in the house is the 800-pound gorilla.  Over half the people in America have three or more televisions.  He claims that this is taking away from personal relationships with the family and friends because people are using it as an outlet.  People sit for hours and watch television rather than getting up and talking and interacting with their family members.  He takes a though from Churchill and his principle on economy about how students should prefer paper textbooks to electronic books.  He says, “Get a notebook computer, put it in your desk drawer write your important stuff in longhand, and more than half an hour of deep thought can be yours.”  I agree with this concept and feel that people in today’s society are becoming too involved with computers, tablets, and cell phones that it is taking away from people’s ability to communicate face to face with each other.  The problem is that it is only going to continue to get worse as technology continues to advance.  I just hope that people are able to realize the importance of personal relationships.