One great thing about After Virtue is the way MacIntyre lays out the differences between various historical theories of virtue. And this has made me aware that I’ve been assuming something I really shouldn’t assume.
That is, I’ve assumed that the highest and primary virtue is Love, or Charity. All the other virtues are only virtues insofar as they develop a person’s ability to love.
I base this, of course, on my Christian beliefs. Jesus commanded his disciples to love: love their neighbors as themselves; love their enemies and persecutors; love one another as he loves them.
But other cultures have placed different virtues at the top of the pile. For most of the ancient Greeks, it seems Justice was the primary virtue, and they would have had no idea of this Christian kind of Love. For others, such as many Romans, Law or Obedience might have claimed primacy. For still others, such as Nietzsche and his followers in Existentialism, pure Will would have guided their moral thinking.
Now, I’m in no way shaken in my belief that Love is the form of all the other virtues. But I’m reminded that it’s not something I can take for granted that others believe. It’s something I need to support and develop, rather than just assume.
‘Cause we all know what happens when we assume things.
In my usually-eclectic spiritual path, I have often had occasion to ponder A. Crowley’s juxtaposition of “Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law” with “Love is the Law; Love under Will.” It takes on, for me, the quality of a Zen koan: it seems irreconcilable on the surface but holds true Paradox within it, which, I believe, is where all Truth ultimately resides. (Perhaps someday the contemplation of this paradox will lead me to Enlightenment, whatever that really is. For now, I just work with what I’ve got.)
What brought this to mind on reading your post is that I think perhaps all the Virtues–Love, Will, Justice, and the rest–are really all intertwined and superimposed and coexistent. Perhaps they are all equally primary, and any one, properly understood and lived, opens one fully to all of them. I, too, have a prejudice toward Love, from Christian as well as personal leanings. But over the last few years I have come to greater understanding and appreciation for many of the other virtues as well, and I can see how useful it can be toward developing a virtuous life to give primacy and/or emphasis to any of them.
As the popular culture likes to say, it’s all good. . . . (Perhaps “they” are not too far off, after all.)