Introduction to the Virtuous Administration Project

The goal of this project is to provide leaders in business, government, and not-for-profits with guidance on living the virtues at work themselves, and coaching others to do so. The organizing structure for the project is a taxonomy of virtues inspired by that of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. What is helpful about this taxonomy is that it is comprehensive: every aspect of human experience is covered. I have attempted to draw a map (or tree) of this taxonomy, and you can find it here.

Please keep in mind that this is very much a work in progress; indeed, we've barely begun. But we're posting early so that others can get involved and help out with the project. You can help by sharing examples of virtue in administrative contexts that you have come across in your own experience or that you have read about. Do that by posting in the Comments section of the relevant virtue. If you'd like to get more involved, you can volunteer to read one of the books from our Bibliography to find examples from it. Different people notice different things in the same book, so we're okay with multiple people reading the same book. (If we reach a point where we believe that any of the books has been mined exhaustively, we'll indicate that on the Bibliography.)

You can also help by making suggestions about naming of the virtues, their definitions, empirical research, and any other aspect of each of the virtues — always through the Comments section.

Taxonomy of the Virtues

The organizing framework for this project is the taxonomy of virtues developed by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. His taxonomy encompasses all of human experience, including the theological, intellectual, and moral virtues. The version here focuses only on the moral, or cardinal, virtues. You can download a full pdf of the tree here.

You can see how comprehensive the taxonomy is by working from left to right. It starts on the far left, with the node labeled "Daily Life." Moving to the right, Daily Life is then divided into Thinking, Acting, and Feeling. The virtue of Prudence perfects our thinking. Below that, Justice is the virtue that perfects our actions, ensuring that we always act justly —fairly —to everyone. Further below, feelings are divided into feelings that repel and feelings that attract. The virtue that perfects our capacity to deal with feelings of repulsion is Fortitude, and with feelings of attraction is Temperance.

Each of those virtues is then further subdivided. So for example, Fortitude is divided into virtues for dealing with repulsion (or fear) of deadly evil, which is Fortitude proper, and fear of other evils. This latter is then further subdivided into addressing the evil (think of that as offense) and enduring the evil (defense). In terms of addressing the evil, we have a virtue for doing so financially, and that's the virtue of Munificence, and for doing so through any other activity, which is Magnanimity. The virtues for enduring evil are, for enduring psychological strain, Resilience, and for physical strain, Perseverance. And so on.

You can view a more complete version interactively. Click on the small connecting circles to expand or contract parts of the tree. 

Enjoy!

Obedience

Virtue:
Obedience

Other names:
"Followership"

Definition:




Advice:


Empirical Research:


Case examples:


Gifts of the Spirit:


Further reading:


Vices opposed:

Disobedience

Notes on the Taxonomy of Virtues

Here is my rationale for placing various virtues and vices where they are on the tree, when not clearly stated in the Summa.

The vices opposed to prudence are placed according to Freddoso. 

Virtue Taxonomy

Here is the interactive taxonomy of virtues.

Science

Virtue:

Science

Other names:

Definition:

The habit of knowing things through other things

Advice:

Empirical Research:

Case examples:

Gifts of the Spirit: 

Further reading:

Vices opposed:

Creativity

Virtue:

Creativity

Other names:

Definition:

"Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things" (CSV). 

Advice:

Empirical Research:

According to the Oxford Handbook of Character Strengths and Virtues, intelligence or high IQ does not necessarily entail creativity (Cassandro & Simonton, 2003). Rather, creative individuals are distinguished by their disposition towards independence, flexibility, risk-taking and a wide array of interests (Feist, 1998).

While the idea that creativity is somehow linked to psychopathologies like depression or manic episodes is very old, contemporary studies show that highly creative individuals display considerable ego-strength. Humanistic psychologists like Maslow and Rogers argue that creativity is closely associated with self-actualization, and CSV speculates that this trait might serve in part as a coping mechanism for individuals with potentially pathological tendencies, converting liabilities in personal psychological assets.

Case examples:

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Further reading:

Vices opposed: