The other day, I was walking to my car when I saw a piece of metal on the ground in the parking lot. I immediately picked it up and threw it over onto the rocks so that no car tire would be punctured by it. I did this so routinely that I barely thought of it as a virtuous act. But this instance exemplifies the process of moral evolution we all go through.
Stage 1: Moral ignorance. You don’t even think of the benefit of clearing the road this way.
Stage 2: Moral awareness. You see the benefit, but you don’t bother doing it.
Stage 3: Moral inconsistency. You sometimes do and other times do not pick up such hazards.
Stage 4: Moral virtue. You regularly do the good thing and feel sort of proud of this.
Stage 5: Moral constancy. Doing the thing becomes so automatic that you don’t even consider it a virtue anymore.
One additional interesting thing to note is that this progression, rather obviously, can also run in the opposite direction describing the cultivation of evil.
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