" While some of exceptional self-control may act virtuously without religion, that exception is not a strong enough foundation for society: "And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion.
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Recent polling and research show that most of us don't act virtuously to lessen our impact on the planet, beyond turning off lights when we're not using them — but even then, many of us do that to save money on our electricity bills.
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In Defense, 141 Fellow National Review editor Brent BozellBrent Bozell, "Freedom or Virtue?" in Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate, edited by George W. Carey, Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 1998, 20–37 criticized Meyer for demanding a "maximum freedom" and for arguing that freedom is necessary in order to act virtuously. Meyer did not make either claim. He actually wrote that total freedom was impossible.In Defense, 84 He did not say that freedom was necessary for virtue but only that forced virtue is not virtuous.
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While not advocating equality in society or under the law, they held that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously, and that therefore men and women had an equal need for philosophical education. These philosophical trends among the ruling elite are thought to have helped improve the status of women under the Empire. Rome had no system of state-supported schooling, and education was available only to those who could pay for it. The daughters of senators and knights seem to have regularly received a primary education (for ages 7 to 12).
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Heins and LaFarge, who had already designed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine near Columbia University and the Astor Court at the Bronx Zoo, were commissioned to design the stations. In the early 1890s the city's transit commissioners had recommended that subway stations be painted and decorated in order to make the experience of using the system pleasant. They took further inspiration from the contemporary City Beautiful movement, which called for beautiful public architecture in the hope that it would inspire citizens to act virtuously. Their use of the Victorian Gothic architectural style reflected its popularity at that time for train stations.
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And such is the common view and opinion, so that nowadays in the University of Paris they call him the Doctor Communis because of the outstanding clarity of his teaching." Historia Eccles. xxiii, c. 9. Aquinas emphasized that "Synderesis is said to be the law of our mind, because it is a habit containing the precepts of the natural law, which are the first principles of human actions."Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part, Question 94 Reply Obj. 2 According to Aquinas "…all acts of virtue are prescribed by the natural law, since each one's reason naturally dictates to him to act virtuously.
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This is a vicious circle: low authority leads to abuse of power, which leads to further erosion of authority, and the path to authentic leadership is blocked. # In order to grow in virtue one must a) contemplate virtue so as to perceive its intrinsic beauty and desire it strongly (a matter of the heart); b) act virtuously habitually (a matter of the will) and c) practice all the virtues simultaneously with special attention to prudence (a matter of reason.) # Through the practice of virtues, leaders achieve maturity in all its aspects—judgmental, emotional, and behavioral. The unmistakable signs of maturity are self-confidence and consistency, psychological stability, joy and optimism, naturalness, a sense of freedom and responsibility, and interior peace. Leaders are neither skeptical nor cynical, but realistic.
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