Can Virtuous Habits Be Cultivated?

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December 19, 2016

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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

- Aristotle -

Can Virtuous Habits Be Cultivated?

Does doing what is right require strenuous effort to resist the alluring temptations of vice -- to resist selfish impulses and push yourself to do what moral duty prescribes? Is virtue hard work or could it become a habit -- that is, a relatively effortless, automatic tendency to do what is morally right, with a minimum of inner struggle? The answer to this question, crucial for understanding and improving the moral level of humanity, is emerging from scientific research on willpower. { read more }

Be The Change

You could develop a little "moral muscle" today by avoiding problem situations, rather than battling with them in the heat of the moment. For example, cultivate a new habit by listening carefully to what others are saying, rather than jumping to conclusions about what is meant before they finish.

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