Photo by Yngve Larsson

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Philosophy at Work is a 30-minute Socratic Community of Inquiry, where we investigate concepts related to our work-life, such as Freedom, Authenticity, Courage, Logical Fallacies, Respect or Leadership.

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Today, I thought we’d get into a bit of a series of sorts. Four sessions on …

The Cardinal Virtues

What is a virtue? According to Google’s AI mode, “virtue is a positive, ingrained character trait or moral excellence—such as honesty, courage, or compassion—that disposes a person to act rightly. It represents a high standard of moral goodness, often serving as a balance between extremes (e.g., courage between fear and recklessness).

Virtue: “positive, ingrained character trait”

“They are considered the ”good of humanity” and guide behavior in everyday life.”
OK. And some examples of virtues are … 

Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control…

According to internet .And there, we recognize integrity, which is one of our values. Now what does that mean? Is there, like, a virtue for each value?

So, if integrity the value means that, sort of, it says “INTEGRITY” on the star you’re navigating by, and it’s to remind you that you should remember to check that there is integrity along your path, so to speak – and the integrity the virtue means … what? Is virtue behavior? Value is the principle and virtue is the conduct?

Is value the principle and virtue the conduct?

I dunno. How do values and virtues go together? What’s the difference? Or, are they the same somehow, but we just call them values and not virtues these days, because … Hm.

I’m … not sure where this is going.

Virtues … Like, in Ethics, one way of looking at different types of ethical frameworks is to differentiate between duty ethics and virtue ethics – we’ve talked about this before (I think 😊). In duty ethics, the point is that you do certain things, fulfill duties, and then you can do it as angrily as you like. Like a child that’s been told that they have to apologize and they don’t think they did anything wrong. Through clenched teeth: “I’m s o r r y “ 😊 So, it’s true that some things you just do – like follow traffic rules – you know, even if you’re in a hurry or the person in front of you is a super bad driver 😀

And virtue ethics is about what kind of person you want to be.

Hm.

When we talk about corporate culture, we … we don’t want people who are just doing their duty. So maybe we should talk a bit about virtue too.

I attended a class on values the other day, and the participants got to pick first 20 values from a list – personal values – and then get it down to 10, and then down to 3, through a particular method (that we can absolutely do together here at some point). One interesting thing that I found out doing that exercise, was that I could see several values that were of the lodestar kind – you know – these are things that I want to get in to my interactions and the way I work. Like, humor. And gratitude. And leadership. These are my inside-out values – how I want to be in the world. But then, there are also some outside-in values – things that I think were really true for, you know, my soul, also when I was 11 years old, kind of thing. Now, our corporate values are how we want to work. It’s how the company wants people to behave. And we can be mindful of it, and we can interpret and translate the company values to behaviors for meetings, or emails, or whatever.

Virtues can also be learnt. You can become more virtuous.
Or, can you?

…

I’ll just mention the cardinal virtues briefly, and then we’ll have a look at one of them. It’s the one that Plato himself said was The Most Important virtue. Now, why did he say that? And how does it apply to your worklife? That’s today’s topic. 😊

So, the cardinal virtues – cardinal meaning principal, chief, or hinge – like, all others hinge on them – are temperance, prudence, justice and fortitude

Temperance, prudence, justice, fortitude

Which you can also call

Moderation, wisdom, equity, courage

Temperance, or moderation, also means something like sound-mindedness, or self-control.

Prudence/wisdom is practical, like being able to take calculated risks, having foresight – you know – that kind of wise. Knowing what to do in a particular situation.

Justice, or equity – there are many ways of saying it – is the mean between selfishness and selflessness. To do the right thing.

Fortitude, or courage, is the mean between foolhardiness and cowardice.

And the one that Plato himself said was the most important of all was … temperance/moderation.

Isn’t that funny? Why on earth would he say that? Doesn’t it sound a bit boring? Like, “lagom”? What did he mean?

Once when I lived in New Zealand, there was a chocolate commercial on TV – a woman in a supermarket, just putting her things on the belt by the cashier. She says, “Everything in moderation … Including moderation!” And then she’s bought like 100 Cadbury chocolates.

Is that moderation? Just a very wide pendulum swing, so to speak?

“Everything in moderation – including moderation!”

And what about that quote that I think is attributed to Albert Camus:

“Always go too far – that’s where you’ll find the truth”

Surely Plato wanted to find the truth! 😊

What do you think he meant? Why is moderation more important than prudence-wisdom, or doing the right thing?

And what does temperance-moderation mean to you, in your worklife?

(Interesting sidenote: I noticed that we had already done Temperance almost 3 years ago, right at the beginning of Philosophy at Work. And for a moment I thought, great, I’ll just use that! Hehe. But, oh no. And I realized that I, and we, the group, have outgrown it. We’ve become so accustomed to thinking out loud, that we don’t need that sort of … well, I’m not sure how to put it, but I was sort of trying hard to be welcoming and make it easy for people to say anything. And now, we’re all – I’m not sure what the word is – it’s like we’ve matured, or something. Matured trusting our own thinking, and thinking better together. Like, better together than by ourselves. I think that’s totally awesome.)

  • Finding balance
  • .. All of the cardinal virtues are about balance!
  • Life is about contradictions – we have to find balance between opposites
  • You still have to be aware of the extremes
  • “Always go to far” – is this about listening to yourself? Follow your heart. You are the mean between extremes
  • … I used to always get the Temperance card in Tarot
  • Buddhist equanimity: Holding both things at the same time (even though they might seem completely opposite)
  • Coming back to presence & seeing things the way they are – on the same level
  • More Tarot: The Hermit card: Holding a light, going into the dark to find the truth
  • To not let oneself be pulled in any direction
  • Slowly, consciously, with presence
  • Slowly: expanding the NOW
  • Let the dust settle (so that you can see)
  • … Being a stable leader. Be aware: what is the team asking? What does the company need?
  • What is moderation if you’re an athlete training for a race?
  • … You have to find your own.
  • Two things can be true at the same time

    <3


Philosophy is what we need.

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More Philosophy at Work:

Philosophy at Work: 2026 (and the importance of how you ask your questions)
Philosophy at Work: EQ
Philosophy at Work: IQ
Philosophy at Work: Self-Scrutiny
Philosophy at Work: Teamwork
Philosophy at Work: Transformative Leadership
Philosophy at Work: Negative Thinking

All texts and podcasts

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How does Philosophy at Work work?

The idea is to practice strategic reflection for improved communication, collaboration, leadership (personal and interpersonal), and Problem Management, by using logic and discernment, and thinking out loud together. This means that you don’t have to mean what you say, or stand for it – what we are doing is trying out ideas, and daring to go where the thought leads us.

Practicing our thinking skills helps us get better at determining which actions can benefit a problematic process, relationship, or mindset. Research from universities (data from 600k students) shows that those who practice philosophy “outscore every other major on reasoning, curiosity and open-mindedness*”. 

Participating in a Community of Inquiry creates a sense of belonging, and what Koestenbaum** calls ‘a culture of chosen accountability’. As we listen to everyone speak their mind, we allow ourselves the time and space to take ourselves seriously and find our strengths while building psychological safety – one of the most important components of successful teams. It can also be, like many claim, “lovely”, with an almost therapeutic effect.

*Article: Studying philosophy makes people better thinkers
**Book: Confronting our Freedom: Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging