An Exemplar of a Virtue

TOPIC: As the focus of your essay, please Choose a historical figure (a dead person famous enough to be written about) and Show how he or she is an exemplar of one of the classical cardinal virtues, in either their ancient Greek or Latin/Christian versions, namely: Wisdom (or prudence) Courage (or fortitude) Moderation (or temperance) Justice METHOD: Your analysis should proceed through the following basic stages. The first sentence of your paper should state the thesis of your paper: The person that you are writing about is an exemplar of the virtue that you have selected, and we can learn more about how the author that you have selected (either Aristotle or Aquinas) presents that virtue by examining this exemplar’s life. The rest of your first paragraph should introduce the virtue by defining it, describing how it is a golden mean between two extremes, and explaining why we need to look to an exemplar to better understand it. Your second paragraph should briefly introduce the person, describing where and when this person lived and mentioning why this person is famous. (Since this is a philosophy course and not a biography course, this paragraph should be fairly short.) The main part of your paper will consist of at least 3 paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain an example from the person's life that demonstrates that virtue in action and should help us to better understand how either Aristotle or Aquinas understands the virtue. Your goal in this section is to explicate some of the things that Aristotle or Aquinas say about this virtue, but that we might otherwise misunderstand if we didn’t have the example of your exemplar. This section should make up the bulk of your paper. Close with a summary of why your selected person is a good exemplar of your chosen virtue whom we should look to as a guide for our own conduct. At this point in your analysis, you may also need to include some qualifications because your person may have had notable failures or shortcomings relevant to the given virtue that will need to be addressed, or your person may have displayed the chosen virtue in a way appropriate to his or her own culture but not to ours. For example, if you were to present George Washington as an exemplar of truthfulness, you might also need to explain that the moral goodness of his truthfulness does not, however, mean that we should follow his example of being a slave owner. You will need to consult one (or more) of the biographical databases/reference works (Gale Biographies, Black Women in America, Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History) linked to on this assignment's section of the content page for information about the life of your figure. You will need to cite these works when giving evidence of your chosen virtue in the figure's life. When you cite these selections, your citation in your text should include the title of the work (either Nicomachean Ethics or Summa Theologica) the book number, chapter/question number, and paragraph number. Your bibliography should include the author, title, translator and date of translation. Short parenthetical references are fine in a short essay like this, but your paper should also include a bibliography in whatever standard format you are most comfortable with (e.g. APA, Chicago/Turabian, MLA.) Please note that long quotations from sources are not appropriate in an essay this short. Also note that essays that do not provide proper citations or documentation for any sources used, will be deemed plagiarized and receive failing grades, including grades of 0/No Credit for the entire assignment. The selections are: wisdom or prudence (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics VI.3,5-8,13) or prudence (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 47) courage (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics III.6-9) or fortitude (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 123) moderation or temperance (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics III.10-12) or temperance (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, QQ. 1