TIL about the Virtues in the Library of Congress

Read the full post at - TIL about the Virtues in the Library of Congress In the main hall of the Library of Congress, there are 8 virtues listed on the walls. They are – Peace Industry Patriotism Providence Wisdom Justice Temperance Courage The last four (wisdom, justice, temperance, courage) are the Cardinal virtues. These are most associated with The Stoics and Plato. But they are also associated with the Seven virtues of Christianity where Ambrose, Augustine, and Aquinas combined the Cardinal virtues with Faith, Hope & Love to get this comprehensive Christian set of virtues. I thought it was an interesting parallel that the architects of the building tried to combined the Cardinal virtues with this sort of very American set of virtues to make another full set. Here is what Claude says about the first four, “American” virtues – They’re better understood as a curated set of republican and Protestant-American virtues, drawn from overlapping traditions: Providence is the most…