When Socrates was confronted by the first multiple choice test, which compelled him to tell whether virtue could be A. taught, B. acquired through practice, C. given by nature, or D. gained by some other cause, he famously scored in the bottom quartile by replying that he didn’t understand the question. 

So it goes when sophists meet philosophers. 

If virtue can’t be taught, one finds it difficult to see how it could be the chief end of education. If even Socrates didn’t know what it is, how can we hope to? 

In the space given, I can neither write a Socratic dialogue, nor properly qualify all my statements, nor adequately refute every just objection—so what follows will be more assertive than if we were gathered around a fire pit with our stories and stogies, bourbons in hand, with leisurely thoughts flowing into a chat in which one of us shows how a slave boy can take a step toward virtue right in front of his master’s eyes and that slave boy’s master can fail to see not only that but also how virtue can be taught. 

Instead, I offer the following incontrovertible, self-evident bits of wisdom: 

Virtue, from Latin virtus and used to translate the Greek arete, finds its purest meaning in the idea of the full realization of the object it fulfills. Thus, in a man, virtue is manliness. If that sounds tautological that might be because virtue itself is, in a sense, tautological: it is a thing’s excellence, blessedness, or, as I said above, full realization. Therefore, it is always self-referential: the virtue of a man is manliness. 

Except when it isn’t. In medicine, virtue is the power to heal. So at least sometimes virtue is the natural power of a thing to do what it is for. In a ship’s captain, virtue is the ability to captain a ship: to safely reach the destination. In this case, virtue obviously contains many virtues, even a sort of wisdom specific to the role of captain. 

Any successful voyage or journey succeeds by generating the virtues it requires, whether that journey be spiritual, intellectual, moral, or physical. There are levels of virtue that correspond to the journey on which the pilgrim is traveling. Furthermore, since virtues at each level are genuinely virtues, the levels are analogous to each other. Physical virtues, like strength, help us understand intellectual virtues, like logical consistency, which help us understand moral virtues, like patience, or spiritual virtues, like hope. 

Indeed, the lower virtues depend on the higher virtues for their purpose and fulfillment. Physical strength for the sake of physical strength wears itself out more quickly than physical strength devoted to a higher purpose, like care for others, mental health, or honor. But even honor is deeply unsatisfying when we receive it for lower virtues like athletic prowess or cleverness. Clearly, virtue reveals itself in a hierarchy in which the higher virtues are more valuable than the lower (which is what gives true value to the lower). Furthermore, within each level, there are multiple virtues. 

Can virtue, then, be the chief end of education? The virtue of virtues is the fulfillment of the human person in all his created potentialities (gifts) for his created purpose. Man is created to dwell in God, to be like Him, and thus to glorify Him. These three purposes express one idea from three perspectives. If we were to combine them into a single concept, we could do much worse than to use the biblical words that vividly and repeatedly tell us God’s intention for us: “Blessed is the man…”. 

Virtue is fulfilled not in actions, or even habits, but in a state of being. That state of being is blessedness. Blessedness is, objectively speaking, the full realization and expression of one’s created purpose through the full realization and expression of one’s given gifts. 

Blessedness is the full realization and expression of what God means when He speaks your name. This is the chief end of all human activity. Another word for it is love: the intention and labor of helping another attain blessedness or virtue. Whether this conception of virtue or love is the chief end of education depends on how closely education aligns with reality. 

To work in a manner indifferent to another’s blessing or blessedness is to hate the other, biblically speaking (the Bible is far more concerned with how you treat a person than with how you feel about them, which does not mean it is not deeply concerned about the latter as well). Therefore, at the very least, a teacher has to intend the growth of her student toward blessedness or virtue in anything she teaches. Therefore, establishing virtue as the end of teaching guides us when we deliberate over what we will teach, how we will teach it, how we will assess our teaching and our student’s growth, and even how we govern our schools. 

At CiRCE, all that we do revolves around and supports the moment when the teacher, the student, and the Holy Spirit unite in a moment of illumination (intellectual, moral, or spiritual, though normally intellectual). Such a moment is a blessing. Indeed, it is what the phrase “the joy of learning” refers to, because it takes the student one small step on his journey toward union with God, realization of his created potential, and blessedness. It takes him one step closer to the realization of what the Roman comic playwright said some two centuries before the birth of our Lord: “Virtus praemium est optimum,” which Thomas Elyot charmingly translated, “Verily vertue dothe all thinges excelle” or, more simply, "Virtue itself is the highest reward.” 

__________________________________________

 Amphitryon is the Latin play (line 648). 

The Boke named the Governor is where we find Elyot’s translation. 

The extended passage goes like this: 

Virtus praemium est optimum

virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto:

liberato sales vita res et parentes, patria

et prognati

tutantur, servantur:

virtus omnia in sese habet, omnia adsunt

bona quem pensei virtus. 

Elyot again: 

For if libertie, helthe, lyvyng and substance,

Our countray, our parentes and children do well

It hapneth by vertue; she doth all aduance.

Vertue hath all things under gouernaunce, 

And in whom of vertue is founden great plentie,

Any thinge that is good may neuer be deintie.

© Andrew Kern 2025

Andrew Kern, CiRCE Institue

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