If virtue is its own reward

[Cadellin]

If, as the old saying goes, virtue is its own reward, is vice its own punishment?

 

[Reepicheep]

Heh. What do you mean when you call virtue its own reward?
It is true that the practice of virtue brings rewards that have nothing to do with financial reward. Likewise the habit of vice brings consequences.

 

[Nevarlander]

I suppose, because even if you like doing bad things it degrades you, like doing good things makes you a better person (which I think “Virtue is its own reward” means).

 

[puzzleannie]

If, as the old saying goes, virtue is its own reward, is vice its own punishment?

yes that is the nature of sin, and in fact most of the evils of the world that have the activists calling for a cure or remedy are the direct results of sin, the sin of the sufferer or the sin of someone who made the sufferer directly or indirectly his victim. The trouble with sin is that although the sinner always suffers, spiritually, mentally, morally, psychologically and/or physically, there are also innocent victims. The AIDS situation is the best example that comes to mind.

 

[cue]

It is important to keep in mind that the things that are most real are not material. Therefore, our sensible experience and perspective of our virtue and vice are terribly limited. If we really saw sin and vice for what they are, we would never sin. So the old saying would be wrong if it means that our action of practicing virtue is the reward. Virtue happens because of a grace apart from us, and that is the real reward. We can only agree with the old saying if we mean this grace and not simply our actions when we refer to virtue. The same applies to vice. The absence of grace due to our refusal is the real loss.

I have often understood this saying to refer to a feeling of satisfaction after practicing virtue. Therefore, doing good does not need to benefit you financially, etc. because it benefits you emotionally. In reality, however, you only perceive a fraction of the reward.

The reason I make this distinction is that, without recognizing this distinction, a man could have this train of thought: I’m practicing a vice – it’s not so bad, in fact, I like practicing this vice – they say vice is its own punishment – I’m liking this punishment, so I’ll keep it up.

 

[dylanschrader]

“Virtue is its own reward” cannot apply to all virtues. For instance, Faith is not its own reward because we will not have the virtue of Faith in Heaven. On the other hand, we will have Charity in Heaven, so you could say in that sense that Charity is its own reward since the virtue itself is part of the end (purpose) of human existence.

In other words, the virtue of loving God for his own sake and his neighbor as himself is its own reward since it was for that reason that man was created.

 

[Pug]

When I was a child, I though “virtue is its own reward” meant that if you did virtuous things you were rewarded by getting to think of yourself as virtuous. I didn’t realize that actual good came to me by being whatever it was that adults called “virtuous”.

 

[Cadellin]

I posed it as a rhetorical question. Perhaps I should have put a smiley face or a grin beside it to make my intention clear, but it is interesting to see the replies all the same.