What are these virtues that according to Aristotle make us a good person?
Aristotle and his fellow Greek philosophers are of course not the only ones to have pondered this subject. We tend to notice the differences between our traditions and cultures. But viewed across the span of human history, the work spearheaded by Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson in the early 2000s is showing increasingly that it does make sense to talk about “ubiquitous, if not universal” virtues. And here they are:
Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.
If, like me, you’re interested in the breadth of thought traditions that they researched and the subtleties that lie behind these words, I highly recommend their book, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. They’ve also done a tremendous job making their work accessible to all via a free, online, and – importantly – scientifically validated survey.
Character strengths are the ways in which we manifest these virtues, showing the best of us. They are ways in which we think, feel or behave that benefit ourselves and others. For example, my top three are Honesty, Love and Hope (I’ll share my bottom three another day!). These correspond to the virtues of Courage, Humanity and Transcendence, respectively.
What are your character strengths?