Josef Pieper writes about the Four Cardinal Virtues

Josef Pieper explores the meaning of the four cardinal virtues in a new article for the Word on Fire Institute journal, Evangelization & Culture. The piece, written by Dr. Tracey Rowland, appears in the journal's issue dedicated to the cardinal virtues.

Pieper, a German Thomist philosopher, detailed the concepts of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance in his book The Four Cardinal Virtues. The first English edition of his work was published in 1954. These virtues, originally articulated by Plato and Aristotle and later adopted by Christian writers like St. Thomas Aquinas, are known as cardinal virtues because the Latin word cardo means hinge.

In his analysis, Pieper describes prudence as a filter of deliberation. He suggests that prudence requires both the goal of a human action and the methods used to reach that goal to align with the truth of reality.