The Four Cardinal Virtues

Joseph Pieper is one of the finest philosophers of the 20th century. The Four Cardinal Virtues is an indispensable resource for understanding the best of ethics gifted to us from antiquity. Joseph Pieper is a brilliant philosopher, all the more so because he makes the exposition of these hinge virtues accessible to us all, even those of us less adept at philosophical explications. Further, with this book, he draws the reader into deep waters in understanding the totality of what it truly means to be human. The illuminating relevancy of each argument and exposition is a joy to the mind because what he exposes to us is timeless.I agree with the other reviewer who suggests that this book be followed by Joseph Pieper's Faith, Love and Hope. I imagine a great writer could not overstate the value of these wonderful books, much less a novice like myself. If you want to learn about the true nature of the timeless virtues, get and read these books!

Simply brilliant reading. Living naturally is what the crux of this book is all about.The book delves into ethics, civics, justice, philosophy, psychology, and I think it is a healthy tool for understanding classical literature: Shakespeare, for example, and the inner psychology of his characters as this moral plain, that Pieper describes, is so much closer to his than most of what we hear in our modernity.Pieper, here, spends time defining what the classic moral compass is, taken primarily from the last officially sanctioned church doctor St. Thomas Aquinas. Pieper brings Aquinas and other philosophers' language up to date, for the ears of the modern mind. Christianityfs definition has too much to do with how it's enemies, or alterior users, wish to define it and Pieper spends a short time correcting this in places.If you liked this you might like Pieper's Virtues of the Human Heart which is a bit less discriptive but more powerful.Pieper also makes the point that the most important stuggle is the internal struggle for meaning and direction in any organization or person.

I first came into contact with this work because it was a required text for my seminary class on ethics. Pieper is a first rate German philosopher and expert on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.If you study this book, The Four Cardinal Virtues (fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence), along with his other book, Faith, Hope, Love (the three theological virtues), you will have a wonderful primer on ethics.One word of warning. Philosophy is not light reading. I know, it was one of my majors. Philosophy written in German and translated into English produces a book not for the timid. If you are willing to take on the challenge, more power to you. It is worth the effort, but you should know what you are getting into before you put down your money. This is a book for those who want to think and wrestle with ethics. It is not for everyone.

Tapping into the core of the western philosophical tradition, Pieper shows the reader how the ancient virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance, have a universal and pressing contemporary application, in the world of human decision making....i.e., the right thinking that clears a path ahead. Formulated out of the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and Christian traditions, he reminds of their elemental spirtual basis in Faith, Hope, and Charity.He notes with special emphasis, the primacy of the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence, as the clear eyed and humanly perfectable, effort to take a hard, and as objective as possible, look, at the entire factual context of a decision. And, in one of the most beautiful chapters among many in this wonderful book, is Pieper's elucidation of how this caluclation is aligned and informed by the Spiritual Virtue of Charity.I find the book to be both a practical and a spiritual insight into human awareness itself.

Can't believe something this beautiful isn't shouted from the rooftops all over the world. No mamby pamby moralizing - teaches you to be a stone cold killer like the Saints of all time were.

A must have for all students of Christianity

Excellent works by one of the preeminent philosophers working in the Thomist tradition in the 20th century.

This book definitively helped me on my spiritual journey. Some people may find this dry or deep but I found it enlightening.

I know other reviewers bought this book for theology, but I bought for a course in virtue ethics from the philosophical perspective, and it was excellent for that. Pieper can be a very technical and highly detailed author but in this work and in the other works of his I have read he is never confusing or overly complicated unless he absolutely has to be. Like the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, this is a book I will come back to again and again in years to come.

I'm studying theology at the moment, and one of the tutors I really respect told me this was one of his favourite books. Having read it, I can agree - it's a brilliant book.

Absolutely brilliant book. Should be a required reading in modern psychology courses as it strikes right at the heart of what it means to be human.

I have not read this book yet but will soon asa requirement for the course and h is usually very clear