Are vice and virtue merely words defining the products of irrational emotions?

Barry Goldwater used these terms to give conservatism a rational basis when he said:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!

(Boldface added for illustration.)

To both of you…

Vice is a moral description of an irrational choice and the subsequent action.

Virtue is a moral description of a rational choice and subsequent action.

Barry Goldwater, an ancient politician of whom I have little knowledge, can deliver in a speech any sort of political slogan he wants to. The implication is that if politicians say it, it must have some value and an element of truth.

You apparently believe this @Yetanotheuser. Out of courtesy, I will not accuse you of being a fool.

But in truth if politicians say it, it may be de facto evidence that it is bullshit.

Words have meaning and to a critter with conceptual consciousness words are almost sacred. People who try to redifine words without an established social convention, are putting a rational civilization at risk.

A civilization like the West, which puts a value on reason and convention, and recognizes the conceptual nature of human consciousness, is vulnerable to attacks by people who imagine that words are “merely words”.

Maybe this is by design. Perhaps you are doing your part to fuck up humanity’s chance at universal peace and harmony which I think is the West’s potential legacy.

If so, in my opinion, you should be ashamed.

And that is all I have to say about that.

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

@Pachy

And your point is…?

@josie When I first heard that famous infamous quote I was watching the 1964 Republican Convention on television, along with some of my classmates at the boarding school. I was appalled to hear it, as were some of my friends. If you have ever read any of my posts in political threads, you might realize that my views tend to be very far to the left of Goldwater’s.

That statement was so strong, and so foreign to my way of thinking, that it was almost etched into my memory as the antithesis of my personal philosophy. It almost makes me cringe to realize that statement might be considered a moderate statement by today’s political Right.

My use of that statement was solely to illustrate the use of the words “virtue” and “vice”.

@josie I take issue with your accusation that user is dupe enough to believe in the veracity of politicians. The fact that Goldwater was probably dead and gone before you were born does not mean that he was irrelevant. For one thing, knowledge of the man and his doings would have prevented you from thinking user’s quote an endorsement.

Again, why do you specifically link vice and virtue with emotions? To me, they are rather associated with attitudes or actions.

I understand you to be asking something like this: Do I consider something to be a vice based primarily on my negative feelings about it? Likewise, is something a virtue in my eyes mostly because I have warm feelings about it? In other words, are “vice” and “virtue” really just externalizations of one’s aversions and affinities, or do they have any objective reality? Is that what you’re getting at?