Dean Abbott, a former professor of communications at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, chose timeless and universal themes for his book, "Common Good: Reflections on Everyday Vices and Virtues."
It's a series of chapters reflecting on various character qualities, Abbott told the Mount Vernon News.
"I have a chapter on sloth," Abbott said. "I have a chapter on fearfulness. I have a chapter on gossip, on friendliness, on love, curiosity."
Abbott has long been interested in ethics and virtue theory and in 2019 decided to write the book.
"I tried to think of a book that I was prepared to write that would be within the realm of the research I had already done," he said. "So I decided to do something on virtue. But instead of just writing an abstract book on virtue, I thought it would be useful to people to actually provide reflections or meditations on common character qualities that we as people either should cultivate or try to avoid."
Love is the ultimate virtue, said Abbott.
"Love is the power behind discipline," he said. "There is no virtue without discipline, and there is no discipline without love as its motivation."
Love is also complex, Abbott said.
"Obviously, I think we can all see that clearly in the world, that a person's ability to love is impacted heavily by the degree to which they are and have been loved," he said.
But ultimately, love has a simple definition, Abbott said.
"With regard to virtue, when we desire good for others, that is a reasonable beginning for defining what we mean by love," he said. "When we desire good for others, that necessarily means moderating our own behavior in some way. When moderate our behavior for the sake of others, we call those virtues."
The opposite of love would be "something like self-obsession, in which the good of the other is not even considered," Abbott said.
The book is available on Amazon and at Paragraphs Bookstore in downtown Mount Vernon.
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