ABSTRACT
The significance of virtue in the achievement of wisdom and hence the ability to live a good and fulfilled life has been argued at length. In addition, its centrality for human happiness has also been addressed. For human beings to reach their potential, both Aquinas and Mencius argue for the importance of the development of the virtues. Both agree that human nature is good and that all human beings are endowed with the seeds or sprouts of virtue, which is to say with the capacity to develop virtue to the full and so to attain that end that is their destiny. The cultivation metaphor can be understood in a variety of ways, since there is not only the question of the kind of cultivation that is to be carried out and on whom, but also the question of how it is to be done and by whom.
