Habits and Virtues

Klubertanz, George P. 1965. Habits and Virtues. 1 ed. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

"Habit" and "virtue" are terms that are used frequently today. In writings on education the importance of habit as one kind of learning is stressed. Psychologists often speak of habit, and many of their investigations deal with the effects of training. Moralists and writers on the living of religious truths and ideals are deeply concerned with virtue and vice.

Strangely enough, there is no single, full-dress, contemporary treatment of these topics. In fact, it seems that those who write on one of these aspects do not attend to any of the others. This is unfortunate. When, a in a book on ethics, the whole descriptive psychology of habits is left out (as it almost always is), the result is a kind of formal (one could more unkindly call it verbal) treatment of justice, temperance, and courage. In quite a contrary fashion, some writers on asceticism (the practice of virtue) seem to be concerned mainly with techniques, particularly little "actions" to be performed, much as one would describe and advise the practice of setting up exercises. It is the author's conviction that these limitations cause much good to remain undone, and sometimes cause harm.

The formalism of much writing on ethics is apparent to many persons. The most characteristic contemporary reaction is to discard most of the traditional content of moral doctrine, and to stress instead the major importance of love, the supreme value of the last end, the dignity and freedom of the human person as an absolute ethical value. All these emphases are excellent, and with-out these principles a real and satisfying ethics cannot be constructed. Therefore, we should be most grateful to those philosophers and theologians who have reintroduced them into psychological and moral discussions.