Chastity is Antiquated

A subscription to chastity has long been considered a virtue. The main proponents of keeping chastity a virtue died centuries ago and chastity has fallen from the philosophical debate in recent times. However, the issue is still relevant. In the United States, religious groups claim an increase in promiscuity and decry promiscuity as an immoral act. Aristotle contemplated virtues that should be promoted for human flourishing. Religious literature asserted that chastity should be included as one such virtue. When compared to other examples of temperance, chastity is shown to be excessively taxing on self-restraint and deficient in causing good, promoting other virtues, and encouraging human flourishing. Religious literature incorrectly portrays chastity as an Aristotelian virtue that exercises temperance.

Aristotle[1] defined a moral virtue as a state of character instead of a passion or a faculty[2]. This means that a virtue is a character trait that is demonstrated to the outside observer by repetition and promotes general welfare. Aristotle proposed that a virtue is the choice of the "intermediate between excess and defect,"[3] or, the middle ground between two extremes. He narrowed his definition by claiming that all virtues must include temperance (the triumph of rationality over natural urges) lest they "be destroyed by defect and excess."[4] For example, if honesty is to be considered a virtue it is easy to see that too little honesty yields a liar and too much honesty yields a gossip or even a Judas. A modicum of temperance must be practiced. Aristotle allows that each individual may have their own relative ideal moral proportions of a trait in order for it to be virtuous.[5]