Vice

For other uses, see Vice (disambiguation).

Vice is the opposite of virtue. The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means "full of vice." In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning "failing or defect".

Vice and virtue

One way of organising the vices is as the corruption of the virtues. A virtue can be corrupted by nonuse, misuse, or overuse. Thus the cardinal vices would be lust (nonuse of temperance), cowardice (nonuse of courage), folly (misuse of a virtue, opposite of wisdom), and venality (nonuse of justice). See: The four virtues.

The Christian vices

Many Christians claim that there are two kinds of vice: those which originate with the physical organism, as perverted instincts, such as lust; and those which originate with false idolatry in the spiritual realm (thought to be suggested by Satan). The first kind, although sinful, are believed to be less serious than the second. Some vices recognised as spiritual by Christians are blasphemy (faith betrayed), despair (hope betrayed), apostasy (nonuse of piety), and indifference (scripturally, a "hardened heart"). Christian theologians have reasoned that the most destructive vice equates to a certain type of Pride or the complete idolatry of the self. It is argued that through this vice, which is essentially competitive, all the worst evil comes into being. In Judeo-Christian creeds it led to the fall of man originally, and as a purely diabolical spiritual vice it outweighs anything else often condemned by The Church. Pride is unique in being perhaps the only vice which is commonly disliked in people even outside of the religious realm.

Harmony of vices

Since virtues might be said to harmonize, so that every virtue requires all the virtues to some extent, vices also might be said to harmonize; i.e. every vice requires other vices to some extent. If this is the case, the presence of one vice in an individual might be evidence of others.

Popular usage

The term vice is also popularly applied to various activities considered immoral by some; a list of these might include the use of alcohol and other recreational drugs, gambling, recklessness, cheating, lying, selfishness. Often, vice particularly designates a failure to comply with the sexual mores of the time and place: sexual promiscuity, homosexuality.

Behaviors or attitudes going against the established virtues of the culture may also be called vices: for instance, effeminacy is considered a vice in a culture espousing manliness as an essential element of the character of males.

See also

• Virtue
• Sin
• Golden Mean

Bibliography

• Virtues and Vices, Aristotle, trans. H. Rackman, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, l992. Vol #285.

Sources

All etymologies are according to the Oxford English Dictionary.