Pagina 180 di 1391

There is a famous question discussed in one of the earlier

Dialogues of Plato (Protagoras; Arist. Nic. Ethics), 'Whether the

virtues are one or many?' This receives an answer which is to the

effect that there are four cardinal virtues (now for the first

time brought together in ethical philosophy), and one supreme

over the rest, which is not like Aristotle's conception of

universal justice, virtue relative to others, but the whole of

virtue relative to the parts. To this universal conception of

justice or order in the first education and in the moral nature

of man, the still more universal conception of the good in the

second education and in the sphere of speculative knowledge seems

to succeed. Both might be equally described by the terms 'law,'

'order,' 'harmony;' but while the idea of good embraces 'all time

and all existence,' the conception of justice is not extended

beyond man.