A Forgotten Virtue
On December 1, 2023, The New York Times published an opinion article which argued that children should be allowed to decide if they want to transition genders. Such a thesis is not uncommon in the contemporary scene. What was unique about this article was how the author, Lydia Polgreen, argued for the position. Lydia explained that children are regularly allowed to make serious decisions for themselves that have lasting and life-changing effects. Further, many children come to regret these decisions, but we do not think that we should deny children the right to make these decisions because of that. Therefore, we ought to let children freely decide if they want to change genders. What other life-changing decisions that children are allowed to make did she compare gender transition to? Choosing which sports to play, how competitively to play sports, and cosmetic plastic surgery such as nose jobs. She wrote:
We allow children to make irreversible decisions about their lives all the time, ideally with the guidance and support of the communities that care for them. Sometimes they regret those decisions. The stakes vary, but they are real. So what are we saying, really, when we worry that a child will regret this particular decision, the decision to transition? And how is it different, really, from the decision I made to quit competitive swimming?
Lydia admits that many people will see the comparison as absurd, but she wants to challenge this instinct and insists that the comparison is genuine. The issue here is not one of argumentation or her reasoning process. Instead, it is much more fundamental. Lydia’s error is an error of basic understanding.
In older Catholic thought, there were several different types of virtues. Chiefly there were the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. There were the four moral or cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These two sets of virtues are still talked about often. But there remains a third type of virtue, the intellectual virtues. The intellectual virtues enable one to think and reason properly. They are as follows: understanding, science, wisdom, art, and prudence. The first three, understanding, science, and art, are virtues of the speculative intellect. They help us know things well and make reasoned deductions from what we know to increase our knowledge. The last two, art and prudence, are virtues of the practical intellect, they help us apply our knowledge to making and doing things.
