There are two other, more modern views, on virtue. On one extreme there is Machiavelli's position which takes hold of the Aristotelian concept of virtue (understood as a good habit as opposed to vice, a bad habit) and turns it up-side-down: virtue is nothing else but something done well, competently and thoroughly.

The virtuous Prince is he who gets a hold of power and holds on to it at any cost. Pushed to its ultimate conclusion, the logical rationalist who operates by pure reason, (what Vico calls "the barbarism of the intellect") will make the trains run on time and efficiently, will gas millions of innocent women, children and men, and then conceive himself as a "virtuous" person; somebody to be admired and praised for his supreme competence in doing a thorough and efficient job.

Then there is the Christian view as expressed by St. Paul: "I know the good but I do evil." In other words, there is something within human nature that is perceived as flawed and less than ideal at its source which makes Socrates' dictum "knowledge is virtue" sound rather hallow and a bit naïve. Paul and to a certain extent Plato are a bit more realistic about human nature. Plato knows about the irrational part of the soul, Paul knows that there is a garden which has been left behind, and that there is a snake in such a utopian garden and there are fallen angels as Milton points out. As pure spirits, they know what virtue is, rationally unencumbered by the weakness of the senses, but freely embrace evil nonetheless.

It is naïve on Socrates' part to think that nobody would choose evil by simply knowing what evil is. In a flawed universe, knowledge is not automatically convertible into virtue. In the same way, it is naïve to think that a Constitution proclaiming the universal rights of man with no appeal to a Creator of human nature (through which they become inalienable, not to be granted and not to be violated by any State no matter how powerful) is any kind of guarantee that those rights will be always respected. To wit, the former Soviet Union and the present People's Republic of China who have wonderful theoretical ideals in their constitutions, on paper so to speak, for the most part violated in practice.

To be sure, these three understandings of virtue were proposed in one form or another under the guise of rationality, piety, morality or holiness at the Plenary Session of the Convention for the EU Constitution held in Brussels a few years ago. Unfortunately they were never thoroughly debated. One of the frequent contributors to the forum on the future of Europe (Carlos del Ama, a Spaniard who teaches philosophy in Madrid) submitted a document at the conclusion of the Convention, on which I assisted him for the English version. It showed that, contrary to what the modern anti-religion sophists and rationalists go around peddling nowadays, historically, most of the Constitutions of the world at the very least mention a Creator in their preamble as a way of grounding themselves in something more durable than the historical vicissitudes of humankind and its power politick. The decision not to do so for the EU Constitution while enthusiastically invoking on the part of Mr.
Valerie D'Estaing the goddess Europe at the opening session of the Constitutional Convention leaves one wondering if the above examined distinctions were at least been discerned, if not discussed.

And so it was not too surprising that the feast of the gods on the Mount Olympus to celebrate the EU Constitution proceeded full speed ahead on Rome's Capitoline Hill where the draft Constitution was signed by the head of states. But it now appears that an apple was thrown on the banquet table by an angry rival goddess who had not been invited at the party: the goddess of discord. As of now, the difficulties of reaching a harmonious agreement on a viable EU Constitution continue unabated. The Rubicon seems to have been crossed and sadly there is no willingness on the part of the political leaders who pushed the draft through, democratic deficit and all, to reconsider much of anything, albeit there is much obstaculation on the part of individual states such as Poland and the UK.

What remains to be seen now is whether or not the people will insist on a Constitution that reflects their traditional and democratic values or if they will opt for submission to what the EU bureaucrats and the politicians have carried out in their name without submitting it to a universal referendum. Ultimately though the people will get the Constitution they deserve, for better or for worse. As Erick Fromm has well taught us, there are many ways of escaping from freedom. The flip side of that phenomenon is the dictum of Thomas Jefferson: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."

PART ONE
PART TWO