ABSTRACT
James D. Wallace, Virtues and Vices has a discussion of the virtues of conscientiousness that is instructive. One of the difficulties with discussions of the virtues is the nomen clature. If the focus is gratitude, elements of empathy and reciprocity tend to get packed into the same frame. If the focus is practical wisdom, matters of temperance and self-control tend to get included. Each human life will then embody a story whose shape and form will depend upon what is counted as a harm and danger and upon how success and failure, progress and its opposite, are understood and evaluated. In order for a trait to be a virtue, it must tend to foster good human life in fundamental ways. It must be the perfection of a tendency or capacity that connects and interlocks with a variety of human goods in such a way that its removal from our lives would endanger that whole structure.
