“Special” virtues in the 10-year-old Civil Code – Following André Compte-Sponville

Abstract

The relationship between law and morality is well known. The virtues are a constituent of morality and are therefore also reflected in law. Not only in positive law, but also behind the letter of the law. Virtue, in the traditional sense of the word, can only be human. Virtue is a necessary condition for man's becoming man. The 10-year-old Civil Code provides for a human image whose virtues can be revealed. This raises the question of whether it is possible to find the virtues that have been formed over thousands of years of philosophical history in the lines and between the lines of the 10-year-old Covenant. If so, they can be used to refine the general conception of man in the Civil Code.

The history of moral philosophy abounds with lists of virtues, from the ancient Greeks, through the Romans, Christian moral philosophy, the Enlightenment, and the diverse schools of philosophy of the centuries that followed, to contemporary philosophical trends. Of the virtue catalogues available today, it is the popular contemporary French philosopher André Compte-Sponville’s accessible catalogue that has reached a wider audience. From his list of virtues, we seek to identify and briefly explain the virtues of courtesy, loyalty, prudence, temperance, courage, generosity and humour. Some virtues are easier to identify and others are almost impossible to find in the Civil Code. It is by living up to them that one can become what the ideal excellence behind a legal text should be. This experiment – with reference to Montaigne – may help us to play the role of man well and correctly.