2025 - a year exploring Cardinal Virtues

Moderation, wisdom, courage and justice form the core of European virtue ethics. Under those names or others (temperance and prudence are commonly used for moderation and wisdom), we find them in Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, the stoics, and later in the Catholic tradition. Together, those four virtues define the key character traits we should foster in ourselves and others, if we wish to live a good life. 

In 2017, I spent a year exploring the four Cardinal Virtues. I devoted 13 consecutive weeks to each virtue, with daily reflections and weekly blog posts, sometimes accompanied by specific body practices. This inspired an exploration of the seven deadly sins, Confucian virtues and Buddhist virtues, which I shared on my blog.

At the end of 2024, as I engaged in a goal-setting exercise for 2025, I found myself with a long list of options. Core strength, meditation, examen, mindfulness and other ways to keep myself in balance, as I navigate an atypical professional life in a complex evolving world. And then the project appeared, all formed as it were: what if I adopted the framework of the four Cardinal Virtues to shape my quarter century? 

So, this year, I will go through 13 cycles of four weeks, cultivating those four virtues in turn. Each week will have its colour defined by the associated virtue. Courage is doing things I’m tempted to put off. Justice is decolonising my brain. Temperance is cultivating pleasure with limited external input. Wisdom is setting systems that will help me stay the course. Whenever I face a challenge, feel ruffled, or enter some sort of phone-induced torpor, the weekly virtue will serve as my way out. In addition, I will cultivate various habits of mind and body, aligning those to the virtue of the week. 

This blog will document my exploration, at the rhythm of a post every week. You can also follow those on my substack.