Is virtue inheritable?

[gimmepie]

I'm confused here, are we talking about virtue or talent? As far as I'm aware the two are totally different things. Virtue is goodness, righteousness and morality whilst talent is about ability. After this post let's stick with one or the other, yeah?

I think talent is something innate. You can learn a skill and become highly proficient at it but a talent is something innate. If I were to use myself for example, I'm a dancer. I don't have a talent for it though. Any proficiency I have has come purely from hard work and practice whilst some of the people I teach or have worked with have an innate ability that lets them learn much faster than I did at their level. On the other hand though, I'm naturally good at choreography. I was never really taught how to do it, it's just something I'm good at.

Another example of talent would be singing. You can learn how to control and manipulate your voice, but some people are born with beautiful voices and some people sound like torturing a small animal (me).

Virtue is more complicated. A person's personality is partially an innate aspect of who they are yes, but a lot of it also comes from outside influences like family, friends and mentors. If we develop in a positive environment, we're more likely to be virtuous but of course this is not always the case either.

 

[gimmepie]

I put virtue and talent together because they share the same nature and the question applies to both. Making separate threads would get off-topic quick haha. But we can discuss only one if that isn't allowed.

The thing is: Besides anatomy or physiology, there's nothing that makes you fit better into certain areas of expertise, rather than life experiences or the environment you grew up in.

Well I mean, if everyone in here agrees that they're linked I have no problem keeping them both together here.

I would argue that there is more too it than that. Anatomy and physiology are obviously parts of it when it comes to a lot of things, but I think that there's probably a mental element to it too. For example, some people are just naturally more intelligent than others.

 

[Her]

Some people are just born with a 'special something' that makes them stand out from peers pursuing the same goal - they might simply be physiologically superior, require less training than their peers to reach a certain level in their field, have faster mental processing ability than the rest of us, the ability to see certain stimuli/read a situation in ways we cannot or all of the above. Anatomical differences are the main form of 'inherited' virtue/talent, yes.

But a lot of that comes to naught if they're not psychologically able to keep up with their body's prowess; if they're not flexible enough to deal with a situation, or simply not trained enough, their mind can let them down. That's true for pretty much anyone, I would imagine. All the innate physical ability in the world means nothing if you're unable to keep your head in the game, so to speak. In a way, that makes it the more important of the two. And while intelligence/mental ability is also inherited, it's influenced by plenty more outside factors. A person's ankle tendons (or whatever) can't be influenced by their cultural upbringing, for example.

Who would be more reliable (assuming they've both had the same level of training in their field): someone with the Special Talent but lacking the mental edge to back up their inherent ability, or an average person but the mental prowess to back up their learned ability?

 

[Somewhere_]

Talent is something you are born with, but I think it can also be acquiring through practice.

Virtue is taught or experienced starting at a young age.

 

[Elysieum]

I don't think either talent or virtue is something that one is simply born with, fully fledged, since they both need nurturing, refinement and exercise in life.

Since so much work must go into both before they become truly significant and aid in the success of a life, the question of whether they are immediately present at birth is irrelevant to me.

 

[Esper]

Who would be more reliable (assuming they've both had the same level of training in their field): someone with the Special Talent but lacking the mental edge to back up their inherent ability, or an average person but the mental prowess to back up their learned ability?

The person who's learned the hard way usually has the edge. Innate talent or a knack for something only gets you so far and can sometimes make people complacent. If that happens then when you reach the end of your talent's strength you don't have the knowledge or training to grow beyond that.

This happened to me. When I was little I was a smart kid and school was easy for me. Then around high school some things were suddenly hard and I couldn't cope with it very well and I floundered for a while.