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Single Idea 20274

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues ]

Full Idea

Honest towards ourselves and whatever else is our friend; courageous toward the enemy; magnanimous toward the defeated; polite - always. This is how the four cardinal virtues want us to be.

Gist of Idea

The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 556)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Dawn (Daybreak) (v 5)', ed/tr. Smith, Brittain [Stanford 2011], p.276

A Reaction

I take this to be Nietzsche genuinely asserting his four cardinal virtues, rather than being ironic. He certainly asserts politeness as the fourth virtue earlier in the book. Cf a different list in Idea 20382

Related Idea

Idea 20382 The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude [Nietzsche]

The 48 ideas from 'Dawn (Daybreak)'

20230 The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche]
20229 No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche]
20380 Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche]
20231 People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche]
20233 Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche]
20232 Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche]
20234 Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche]
20235 Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche]
20236 Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche]
20237 Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche]
20238 Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche]
20240 The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche]
20241 Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche]
20242 Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche]
20243 Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche]
20244 Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche]
20245 Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche]
20246 If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche]
20247 Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche]
20248 People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche]
20249 Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche]
20250 We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche]
20251 Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche]
20252 Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche]
20253 Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche]
20254 People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche]
20255 Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche]
20256 What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche]
20257 Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche]
20258 Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche]
20259 Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche]
20260 Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche]
20261 History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche]
20262 Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche]
20263 Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche]
20264 The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche]
20265 The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche]
20266 It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche]
20267 Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche]
20268 Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche]
20269 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche]
20270 There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche]
20271 Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche]
20272 Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche]
20273 The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche]
20274 The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche]
20275 Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche]
20131 We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche]