What Is The Meaning Of Virtue In Ethics?

The Greek word appetite which was translated by the English word virtue was used for excellence of any kind, and we occasionally find the English word in a similar way, as in the sentence 'The medicine has lost its virtue', but generally the excellence referred to is an excellence belonging to man, so that the virtues may be described as the forms of human excellence.  

In ethics, 'virtue' is used with two somewhat different meanings.  a)  A virtue is a quality of character – a disposition to do what is right in a particular direction, or to perform one of the more universal duties. b)  A virtue is also a habit of action corresponding to the quality of character or disposition.  We may refer to the honesty of a man, or to the honesty of his dealings equally as virtues.

Laird has divided virtues into three classes.  
a) There are virtues of what he calls the righteous quality.  A virtue of this kind consists in the habit of performing a duty of a particular kind and in the quality of character which leads to this of action.

b) There are virtues, secondly, of what Laird called the requisite quality.  These are necessary to a virtuous character, but also found in bad character, and indeed may tend to increase the wickedness of the bad.

c) There are virtues, thirdly, of the generous quality.  These are chiefly of an emotional kind, and they add something not strictly definable, but of the nature of beauty or of moral intrinsic value, to actions that are in other respects right.