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Virtue an Introduction: VirTrue Podcast

VirTrue - Helping Man Grow in Truth and Virtue

This episode is brought to you by the Crusader Rosary from The Social Catholic: What is virtue? What is virtue? And how do we grow in true virtue in a world that often reduces morality to virtue signalling? Modern virtue examples do not represent the reality of virtue depicted for us by great minds like Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bernard of Clairvox. The virtue signaling of our modern times seeks to excuse our natural tendencies and places no moral worth to the effort it takes to battle our sensitive and natural appetites in order to arrive at the golden mean of virtue. In this first episode of the VirTrue podcast, we explore the foundations of virtue ethics, drawing from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, medieval Christian teaching, and the tradition of Catholic moral philosophy. The conversation introduces the classical understanding of moral virtue, the cardinal virtues, and the theological virtues, and explains how the pursuit of virtue shapes human nature, moral character, and ultimately human flourishing. Rather than treating virtue as abstract theory, we look at how virtue and vice operate in real life. Virtue is not simply a list of admirable character traits. True virtue forms the soul so that a person acts in accordance with reason, aligning natural desires with the good. This tradition of Aristotelian virtue and Christian thought teaches that virtue is a stable habit of the moral life, ordered toward the good and perfected through grace. The episode also explores how classical thinkers understood the relationship between vices and virtues through Aristotle’s concept of the golden mean. Virtue lies between excess and deficiency, forming the basis of what later philosophers called virtue and moral philosophy. These concepts of virtue became foundational across disciplines including moral psychology, political philosophy, and metaphysics of morals. Drawing from the intellectual tradition preserved in works referenced by the Catholic Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and classical academic publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge Dictionary, Harvard University Press, and historical sources like York Robert Appleton Company, this episode examines the enduring philosophical and theological accounts of the virtues that shaped Western civilization from the 13th century onward. We discuss: • Aristotle’s model of moral development from vicious to virtuous• The role of intellectual virtue in shaping the moral life• The relationship between virtue and vice in human action• How the classical understanding of virtue differs from modern moral language• Why civic virtue and personal virtue remain essential for a healthy society The episode also introduces a practical framework for the VirTrue series. Each episode will examine a specific virtue, the vice of deficiency, the vice of excess, and practical ways to cultivate virtue in daily life. The tradition of the seven virtues reminds us that virtue is not merely philosophical theory or academic subject matter. It is the path to becoming the kind of person whose actions naturally flow from a well formed soul. True virtue is not performance.It is the formation of a life ordered toward truth. Topics Covered Aristotelian virtueVirtue ethics and moral philosophyCardinal virtues and theological virtuesVirtue and vice in the moral lifeHuman flourishing and moral characterThe golden mean and moral psychology Resources Mentioned Eight Points of Virtue from the Knights Hospitaller * Live in truth * Have faith * Repent of sins * Practice humility * Love justice * Be merciful * Be sincere and wholehearted * Endure persecution The VirTrue Episode Framework Each episode explores: • Definition of the virtue• Vice of deficiency• Vice of excess• Personal experience• The secular perspective• An example saint• An act of virtue you can practice Aristotle’s Model of Growth in Virtue ViciousWeak willedSelf controlledVirtuous St. Bernard’s Model of Growth in Love Love of self for one’s own sakeLove of God for one’s own sakeLove of God for God’s own sakeLove of self for God’s sake Model of Virtue * The Seven Virtues and Fifty Subvirtues of Medieval Christianity Follow us: Get full access to The Social Catholic at socialcatholic.substack.com/subscribe