The Two Types of Virtue

In the master virtue set, there are two types of virtues.  And, yes, we should think of them as types, not as classes or categories.

The best way to understand the types is just by listing their virtues.  (This is how WJT discovered the types, and the lists below are cribbed liberally from him).

(Work in progress.  These classifications may be off, or the general types may be off.  You start with what you have and go from there.  I think the idea of a master virtue set is very appealing,  and I’m mostly sold on WJT’s model for what the master virtue set is, but you could accept the idea of the master virtue set while thinking we have the wrong idea about what the two types of virtues are.

I do notice that the type 1 virtues seem to go big mentally while being constrained emotionally and physically.   Planning ahead, but also recognizing limits and being humble.  Whereas the type 2 are the opposite: expansive personally and emotionally and in ambition, but small in their mental scope.  I worry that we are just accepting our own modern culture’s Jock-Nerd stereotype too much.  On the other hand, there does seem to be some logic behind having a really good understanding of something and therefore recognizing your limits and not being very daring because you are aware of all the ways your efforts can go wrong, and vice versa.

If I had to adopt a different way of categorizing the master virtues, maybe inner v. outer?  Big v. small?).

The two types of vice are along the same lines as the virtues.  Cowardice on the one hand, recklessness on the other, and so on.  Someone who has type 1 virtues will also tend to have type 1 vices.  Ditto for the type 2s.

WJT uses the terms Ahuric for the virtues of passion and strength; Devic for the virtues of control and discipline; Luciferic for the vices of passion and strength; and Ahrimanic for the vices of control and discipline.  I don’t like those terms.

Oriental mysticism used to have cachet.  It no longer does, not in the same way.  The words don’t have intuitive meanings to the western mind.  They are technical but basically randomly technical.  You could make up any combination of phonemes and for even most educated people it would do just as well.  I would rather work with Western types and at a level that is accessible to the middle brow.

Finally, and most objectionably, in latter-day saint revelation Lucifer is clearly “Ahrimanic.”  He is not “Luciferic.”  Milton’s Lucifer is a bold rebel, but the actual one is a fleshless creature of fear and subversion and resentment.

I would look for options in fairy tales and fables.  It would be appealing if the four Pevensie children or the four humors aligned nicely with the master virtue set, but I think they don’t.

Here are some thoughts.  Feel free to disagree with any of this.

The tortoise and the hare — the tortoise is type 1, the hare is type 2. The bear is type 2, the honeybee is type 1. The owl is type 1, the hawk is type 2.

Trickster archetypes are neither one nor the other. They have the cleverness and ability to treat others as means to ends that are type 1, but the impulsiveness and recklessness of a type 2. However, the fox from the Renaud the Fox stories comes close to being a good Type 1 although a little lacking in humility.  The ‘master mind’ is also mostly a type 1, but with type 2 ambition and daring.

Bulls are type 1.

The faustian impulse is interesting. Type 2, but elevated.

Odysseus is type 1 (But not the Odysseus of Tennyson’s Ulysses). Achilles is type 2.  Odysseus lacks humility but he is clever and his ambition is constrained–he is just trying to figure out a way home.  Daring to hear the sirens but making sure you are tied up first is a classic type 1 move.

Gathering is type 1, hunting is type 2.

Washington is type 1, Jackson is type 2.

The hero is a type 2, the wise old mentor is a type 1.

Brahmin is type 1, kshatriya is type 2.

Armor is type 1, the sword is type 2.

Thomas is type 1,  Grant is type 2.  Longstreet is type 1, Jackson and Lee are type 2.

Lies are type 1, boasts are type 2.

Wormtongue and Saruman are type 1. Orcs are type 2.

Denethor is a type 1-ish villain.  Boromir is type 2-ish.

Bilbo and Samwise Gamgee are type 1, in the humble and constrained aspects of it.