A More Perfect Way
To win is a great reason to play a game. Competitiveness makes perfect sense. But there is an even better reason to play any game, a reason which motivates the best play possible even when winning is not realistic. That reason is virtue, and it affects a lot more than playing games.
It is not uncommon for coaches to have a hard time connecting with their players because of the difference in ultimate this-game values. That is, the player wants to win, while the coach intends to teach how to be a better player. So in volleyball, a player goes over the net with the first hit. The coach says to pass the ball to the setter next time. In rebuttal, the player points out that the return was successful, resulting in a side-out. The exasperated coach often ends up appealing to the authority of his position to make his case. “I’m the coach. Do what I say.” But he only appeals to that very weak source of authority because he does not have time to explain the value of playing right. The object for the coach in that moment is not simply to win one game, but to make the player and the team better overall. Now it may be that in the analogy of the game the purpose for becoming better players is to win more games down the road, but it does not change the fact that in a particular game it is not winning, but improving, which matters most.
According to Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the three necessities for practicing virtue ethics in today’s Western world is the narrative of human life. That is, a person must see his life as a unified whole, an unfolding story, in order to pursue virtue. The reason narrative is necessary for virtue is that virtue is inherently teleological—that is, it is built around movement toward an ultimate purpose. Ultimate purpose carries a world-changing implication: purpose implies intelligence–intelligence in creation. If people are created intentionally, then they have a purpose which can either be fulfilled or failed.
So there is Virtue, and there are virtues. Virtue (with a capital “V”) indicates fulfillment of the ultimate (and original) purpose. A variety of virtues are the intermediate means toward that ultimate purpose. Obviously, a vice is anything which hinders the fulfillment of that purpose.
So a virtuous person is one who lives toward his ultimate purpose. The moral implications of such a purpose and of its accompanying virtue are well-known, and find expression by the time of Thomas Aquinas (the Thirteenth Century) as temperance, courage, wisdom, justice, prudence, knowledge, understanding, faith, hope, and love.
In spiritual terms, a perspective of life driven by virtue would necessarily compel its subject persistently and incrementally toward completion—toward that ultimate purpose. Peter makes it obvious that this is exactly how Christians pursue life in the first chapter of his second book.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Life for the follower is not simply about following a rule or accomplishing some task. It is about becoming what he was created to be from the beginning.
There is a practical side-effect to understanding life as a pursuit of virtue. Everything becomes part of an incremental and persistent pursuit, a progress toward perfection (which simply means completion). A game of volleyball is not about winning, but about developing skills, improving physical condition, learning strategies, and even becoming a better sport. (All of which, by the way, leaves me wondering why I still play!) A paper is not just an assignment, but an opportunity to learn new things and write with better style. A job is an opportunity to improve, not just survive.
While the specifically moral issues of life can be easily described in direct relationship to the virtues, it is worth noting that every part of a follower’s life can become an expression of the pursuit of Virtue. It is not about having a “type-a personality.” It is not about being obsessive. It is not about fearing failure. It is about seeing life and the world in which it is lived as intentional. And it is therefore about seeing every event in that life as another step toward perfection. So a perspective shaped by virtue is about perfection (completion) rather than simply solutions; indeed it is, by definition, a more perfect way.
