Virtues as Freeing Habits

Does doing the right thing free you or constrain you? Morality is often seen as a rigid code in which choices are stymied for the sake of the good, sometimes to the frustration of the actors. Yet, there’s nothing that presumes that morality has to be a constraining process. Morality is simply that which one ought do, without any presumption as to the nature of the ought itself (that is determined by the science of ethics). As well, one may presume an egoist ethics to be quite different from an altruistic one. So how can morality be freeing? It has to do with the nature of virtues and action. The Objectivist ethics is actually a freeing morality in a constraining universe. Of which, vices are to be found to be limiting to oneself, not liberating. Virtues are freeing habits that allow us to live richer lives, while vices bring us down and cage us.

The universe and the natural human relation to it are constraining to man. The need for food, water, sleep, and shelter are an ever present reality. Regardless of one’s choice of morality or action, these requirements for human existence are a constant that humans must act to satisfy. Without satisfaction of these needs, a man will wither and die, precluding any future action. Any wish that one has is subject to the laws of reality. One may wish to fly unaided, but the realities of existence make it impossible. Indeed, the production of wishes by people seems limitless. Yet, many wishes remain simple utterances in people’s heads. We are constantly subjected to a rigid, changing world that we must act within with obedience to natural laws if we wish to attain our needs and desires. The universe impinges upon us always. Inaction in the face of natural laws is death. Without mastery of the world, the range of choices and freedom we have is small.

Virtues allow one to master oneself and reality giving one a greater range of choices. Objectivist virtues are derived from more fundamental metaphysics. This means that the basic principles of reality are taken into account and virtues are formed based on our understanding of those basic principles. For example, the omnipresence of reality and the truth give rise to the need for honesty (any time you lie, it is you betting your lie against the present truth in reality itself). Virtues give efficacy because they make use of our underlying reality to be practiced. If I can know that being dishonest will cheat me of efficacy because I will be found out or will practice under faulty assumptions (I won’t be making use of reality to its full extent because I have to ignore the parts I’m dishonest about), I can correct my course and take hold of reality in greater use. The universe then becomes a tool in the face of these virtues, which the virtues only let you master in accordance with their nature. The relation of the efficacy of a virtue to reality can best be summed up with the quote from Sir Francis Bacon: “nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” It is through mastery of one’s own internal mechanisms and external nature, of which both are heavily intertwined, that one gains freedom and a wider array of choices.

Vices, on the other hand, constrain a person from doing future actions and reduce the number of choices to an individual. In the Objectivist ethics, vices are those things that hurt oneself and lead to our detriment. They are wishes or acts that run contrary to reality and, thus, lead to a person’s downfall. Vices are (interesting pun) like a snake coiling around you. The vicious man has the freedom to kill himself, to have the snake coil around him, but the freedom precludes him from all other freedoms. This is the ultimate nature of all vices. Drug abuse superficially “gives you what you want” but ultimately destroys your capacities and, thus, your freedom. Once chosen, it is often that the faulty method becomes a recurring band-aid, soothing the individual’s doubt about the initial engagement with the method and giving them a sense of false justice. The person chronically and habitually, as vices and virtues are habits, engages in the act. The act, however, runs contrary to the laws of reality, whether those laws act slow or fast, and the person is in an uphill battle attempting to battle reality, itself. Given the constraining nature of reality, lethargic and apathetic behaviors are vices, as well. It is truly only through engaging, virtuous action that a person is set free.

In truth, there is no freedom to do whatever you want. This is because whatever you want has to be possible before you can do it, and you must live with the consequences of all of your actions. One may wish for an existence where drug use has no negative consequences, but it is not the reality in which we live. Any sense in which one gets to do whatever they want is when those things that one wants are in accordance with reality. It is not any want that one may have that is satisfied, but wants that have been brought into accordance with reality. In this sense, virtuous people have more freedom to do what they want, even if all of their wants aren’t done. As well, by the Objectivist definition, vices shorten your existence and your engagement with reality, thus shrinking the amount of freedom one has. Further, the freedom to do whatever you want is hindered by the fact that one can only choose one thing at a time, precluding another choice.

Virtues free us in reality by allowing us to master ourselves and the universe around us. It is only through the excess time and effort that is created by engaging a constraining universe effectively that we are freed. Vices, on the other hand, are a turning away from reality and create a blindness that only subjects us to the impingement of reality. Instead of freeing us, they force us to engage with reality on a more basic level as we scurry to clean up the consequences of our inefficacy, if it doesn’t create an outright failure itself. A vice can preclude a virtue, just as quickly as a virtue can preclude a vice. Freedom is a tenuous thing, but greater freedom is discovered by those who take an interest in engaging reality and making the most of existence. It is only through knowledge, and thus virtues, that we can truly free ourselves.