Plutarch's View of Virtue

Plutarch's view of virtue is portrayed to us through the three basic parts that he argues make up every man's life. A man's birth, his education, and his work are these three parts.
Coming first in the basic parts of a man's life, although not the most important in Plutarch's opinion, is his birth. His parentage, a big factor of his birth, can help determine who he becomes in life, however it doesn't mandate how he develops. If his parents were drunks, he may become a drunk because of the example they set for him or he may choose to overcome that heritage to become a man of virtue. Plutarch argues that a man's gifts can be educated enough to overcome all obstacles of birth.
For this reason, Plutarch highly valued education. He recognized that man has no control over his birth and sought to compensate that with education. Unfortunately, education is not the key answer to living a virtuous life although it can do and give us many good things. Plutarch directly contradicts scripture when he states that man is not evil by nature but simply doesn't know what is good and therefore needs to be taught. Our Omnibus text says "Education can teach people what is good, true, and beautiful, but it cannot make us love those things, or give us the wisdom and strength to do them." Only Christ gives us the strength and will power to do good and this Plutarch totally misses!
Finally we come to the last part of a man's life, his work. Plutarch believed that the deeds a man performed in his lifetime would be the reason for him being deemed virtuous or not. However, although his work can earn him the title of being virtuous among men, God sees the heart and the truth. Altogether too often deeds that seem done for honorable reasons are out of selfish ambitions.
So, as I have written, the ultimate piece that is missing from Plutarch's analysis of life is God. His basic parts of life to obtain virtue all include what man can do. It's not about man, it's all about God!
-Myriah in Michigan