The Four Cardinal Virtues [Paperback]

Josef Pieper (Author), Richard Winston (Translator), Clara Winston (Translator), Lawrence E. Lynch (Translator), Daniel F. Coogan (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 1966

In The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper delivers a stimulating quartet of essays on the four cardinal virtues. He demonstrates the unsound overvaluation of moderation that has made contemporary morality a hollow convention and points out the true significance of the Christian virtues.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A]ttempts . . . a human quest for the wisdom that enables one to become the kind of person one strives to be." -- Studies in Formative Spirituality, November 1984

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press; 1 edition (March 31, 1966)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0268001030
• ISBN-13: 978-0268001032
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > History > Europe > Greece

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Really Need Both Books, December 21, 2003

By 

R. Kirkham "jrkirkham" (Rushville, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Four Cardinal Virtues (Paperback)

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.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let your enemies define you., November 6, 2003

By 

Neri "Neri" (Himeji, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Four Cardinal Virtues (Paperback)

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.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thomistic, February 12, 2003

By 

Tina Bell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Four Cardinal Virtues (Paperback)

I read this book over and over again. Pieper is a great antidote to the vagueness of some modern Catholic writers who tend to use a feel-good approach to virtue and write vaguely about sharing, caring, and being nice to people. This book tells you what the virtues really are and what they have meant to the Church for two thousand years.