ABSTRACT
According to Descartes, each person ought to follow virtue in all their conduct. But what is virtue? In Descartes’s view, it is a second-order good that is constituted by a firm and constant resolution in the will to choose first to form and then to act in accordance with our most considered judgements about what would be best to do—that is, what would be most conducive to one’s possession of first-order goods such as knowledge, health, and friendship—in the circumstances. The present chapter develops this Cartesian conception of virtue in more detail. This will also include providing an account of what Descartes means by ‘will’ (the good or correct use of which is what he thinks constitutes virtue).
