Love as a Value: Relevance of the Classical Theory of Virtues

Abstract

This article refers to the anthropology of realistic classical philosophy: Aristotelian, scholastic and neoscholastic. The author undertakes the subject of the decent upbringing to use material goods, dispose of talents and attitude to human body. The culture of moderation, which is contrary to the over-consumption model of culture, is defined as culture of moral virtues: temperance, sobriety, chastity, gentleness, forbearance, humility, diligence, modesty and even – the virtue of spending a free time. This paper underlines the relevance of virtue theory to modern pedagogy. Central to the whole work is a comparison of the concept of human, which is influenced by consumer culture to the concept of human dignity formulate on the basis of European culture. Therefore, the work points to the mutual relationship of spiritual and carnal nature of man. The human being (a person), as the author stresses, exists in himself as in subject by the existence of the immaterial soul. The body indeed is matter which is constantly being organized (or disorganized) to the end of being a human body. The body is the condition for the human person’s activity and contributes to man’s development, but it can’t bring this development to fulfillment. Human nature is not determined to act in the same way, so human activity is a matter of decision. The act of decision is essentially a moral being and forms the humane order of morality