The term moral—rooted in the Greek ethikos—originally described a “practical” path toward a telos. It was a way of being. Over time, however, we transitioned from describing active character patterns to issuing value judgments (moral virtue), effectively swapping an active verb (being) for a static noun (label).
The Enlightenment accelerated this shift by untethering virtue from communal and religious traditions in favor of purely rational justifications. This created a modern, sterile dichotomy: one is either “rationally moral” or “idiotically virtuous.”
By stripping away social context and replacing practiced habits with logical compliance, we have lost the freedom of choice (agency via action) in our morality. We are left within an intellectualized cage where virtue is no longer a soul’s path, but a binary of “correct” thought.
from Alasdair MacIntyre