Does virtue require a body or passions?

[fakename]

Does virtue require a body?

It seems that virtue does require a body since virtue deals with regulating the passions and all passions need a body.

But then again, if this were true, then there would be no virtue in heaven and God would not have virtue.

Now if virtue is simply action in accordance with right reason, then bodiless creatures can have virtue.

So I ask, does virtue require passions? And if a virtuous man nonetheless must regulate his passions, then should one say that virtue is consistent with regulating passions but is not equivalent to regulating passions? And similarly can one say that virtue does not always imply that one is regulating passions?

 

[Theophorus]

Does virtue require a body?

It seems that virtue does require a body since virtue deals with regulating the passions and all passions need a body.

But then again, if this were true, then there would be no virtue in heaven and God would not have virtue.

Now if virtue is simply action in accordance with right reason, then bodiless creatures can have virtue.

So I ask, does virtue require passions? And if a virtuous man nonetheless must regulate his passions, then should one say that virtue is consistent with regulating passions but is not equivalent to regulating passions? And similarly can one say that virtue does not always imply that one is regulating passions?

Depends on the virtue you are dealing with. Virtue is excellence of function in action, and in humanity such excellence is in accordance with right reason, but it depends on the actions you carry out whether or not it involves the passions. I would say virtue is not exclusively bound up in them but always plays its part, for example in the cardinal virtues:
The virtue of prudence involves the intellect and its correspondence to reality which does not necessarily imply passions.
The virtue of Justice involves the will and willing the good of others
While temperance and fortitude involve the concupiscible and irascible passions respectively.

We need prudence to be temperant and to have the virtue of fortitude but we don’t need temperance to be prudent.The virtuous man is virtuous in general not simply in specifics, and so the virtuous man acting in accordance with prudence and justice should be likewise acting virtuously in the passions.