Virtue (Areté / Virtus) — A stable excellence of character that disposes a person to act well consistently. The Greek term areté originally denotes the excellence proper to anything in fulfilling its function: the areté of a horse is to run well, that of a human being is to live according to reason. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes the intellectual virtues, acquired through teaching (such as sophia and phronesis, or practical wisdom), from the moral virtues of character, acquired by repeating good actions until they become a habit (hexis). Moral virtue lies as a mean (mesotes) between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency: courage is the mean between recklessness and cowardice; generosity, between prodigality and stinginess. This mean is not mathematical but relative to each situation, and it falls to practical wisdom to discern it. The ultimate end of the virtues is eudaimonia, the good and flourishing life. Before Aristotle, Plato (Republic IV) had articulated the four cardinal virtues — prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance — later absorbed by the Stoic and Christian traditions, the latter adding the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity). After centuries dominated by ethics of duty (deontology) and of consequences (utilitarianism), virtue ethics was revived in the 20th century, above all by Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue (1981), who placed character and community back at the centre of moral reflection.
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