After reading AC Grayling on fidelity yesterday evening (which I’ve blogged about on HorC), when I couldn't sleep last night I was reading a back issue of the New Statesman and came across an article by Jonathan Beckman. He was writing about citizenship, and the idea that it can be taught: ‘...unlike physics or history, citizenship is not a body of knowledge. It involves both a civic participation and an interior disposition: it is a combination of activity and feeling’.
I liked what he said about Aristotle:
‘Establishing… virtues is not simply a question of education. One does not become virtuous by knowing that stealing is wrong. Virtue is maintained by constantly doing virtuous acts. These are not done reluctantly, but are accompanied by appropriate feelings of harmony and satisfaction. Indeed, should you suffer a dark night of the soul, Aristotle would claim that you are not truly virtuous’.
As with fidelity, so with Aristotle’s virtues: it is not enough simply to know, or to do, what you should do, in order to be virtuous - it must also be what you truly want to do.