The Perfection of Desire

Aquinas claims that the virtues are habits, that is to say, stable dispositions oriented towards desires of a certain kind. As such, like all habits they presuppose rationality and enable a distinctively human way of feeling and acting. Thus, if we want to make sense of what Aquinas says about rationality and the virtues, it makes sense to turn first to the more fundamental ways in which habits generally speaking are shaped by and responsive to reason.