Will and Virtue

For Aristotle and Kant, each, 'Virtue' is constituted by self-control--one in terms of the concept of Balance, the other, on that of Rational Universality. Each presents a formula for the self-constraint that can counter external influences. Now, the original meaning of 'virtue' is 'excellence', and, as previously discussed, 'to excel' means, literally, 'to exceed'. So, insofar as Will is the principle of Excession in Experience, Virtue, is, essentially, a mode of Will. Thus, Formaterialism conceives Virtue as the cultivation of self-innovation. The divergence of this concept from the traditional one is based on more than on its stricter interpretation of the term 'excellence'--it, more substantively, reflects its highlighting of the inhospitability of traditional doctrines to human creativity, which Vitalists, notably Nietzsche and Bergson, expose. So, at minimum, it demonstrates the arbitrariness of the application of the term 'Virtue' to self-control, and, at maximum, it suggests that such an application entails a violation of the fundamental meaning of the term.