Dantean Virtue Ethics as a Basis for Sustainable Peace

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of peace and its importance as a foundation for a safe, secure society where individuals and nations can live together and flourish. It argues that peace is urgently needed for achieving sustainability as violent conflicts and wars are existential threats to our own survival as a species as well as to the planet. By tracing the development of moral law and the capital virtues and vices from ancient Greek and early Christian philosophy and drawing on the Divine Comedy it shows how moral failure leads to conflict and violence and how Dante’s model of Purgatory can function as a roadmap to peace through the cultivation of virtue. It argues that peace on a global scale can only be achieved through systemic moral transformation and not through purely political or economic means. It suggests prioritizing SDG-16 on peace to the first goal, reflecting its vital role in facilitating the other goals; and that SDG-4 on education be expanded to give greater emphasis on morality and virtue ethics.

Keywords: morality, virtue ethics, sustainable development, peace, the Divine Comedy, moral philosophy