The imperative of business is to be a good citizen: self-confident but focused on others. We often hear one variation of Jeffrey Immelt's famous statement, but much less frequently, we realize that we are talking about virtues.

The obvious problem is that "virtue" is difficult to define. We understand it intuitively, but we interpret it based on our experience, the need for historical context, our perceptual lattice, shop, for example. Virtues are usually defined descriptively through lists and lists. Faith, hope, love, integrity, humility, moderation, patience, generosity, diligence, gentleness, dignity, perseverance, spiritual authority, courage, seriousness, purity, or something. Lists are growing and shrinking, and the concept itself is slipping away.

• Man's desire for practical happiness.
• Efforts to behave well and at the same time the benefit that this effort will bring.
• A person's ability to deal with will and intellect is fully developed.
• Mind, will, and feelings are directed to good.
• The joy you experience from doing moral good, even at the cost of sacrifices and internal obstacles.
• Type of behavior and its public property.
• Elements of public identity, "limiters," are natural by their laws.
• A set of ethical principles and rules defined by law.
• Quality that allows you to perform your role as well as possible.

All these definitions - when complementary, when conflicting - sounded during the conversation in kmbs. Each of the speakers, remaining in their competencies, formed a semantic field of the complex concept of "virtue" during two hours of intense conversation.

Natalia Starchenko - historian, doctor of historical sciences, author of the intellectual hit "Honor, blood and rhetoric. Conflict in the aristocratic environment of Volhynia "- appealed to the experiences of the nobility of the XVI-XVII centuries.

Virtues are not an emotion, but a pure motivation for action, a practical act. Honor protection - specific practices. If you were born a nobleman, live respectfully as a nobleman belongs: in the political sphere, in coexistence with your peers, about your subjects. Thinking about the state has the following way: the condition is us, the shape develops as long as we behave following the virtues, spoiling the virtues means breaking the state, the welfare of the state means a respectable life. In those days, we liked to refer to the metaphor of Aristotle: we are all in the same boat, so we will all sail to shore or all drown. And one of the main virtues here is consent. And immediately after it - justice: to give everyone what belongs to him. We live as long as we abide by our rights and do not violate the rights of others, their honor, and good fame. If this happens and you break the excellent reputation, then hurry to correct the evil without judgment and pressure, do it voluntarily. And finally, charity: do not get tired of serving - the fatherland, the people, the community, others. "My heroes call it in the categories of the gift from the gift," said Natalia Starchenko, "the exchange of symmetrical gifts; we give with joy, we accept with gratitude, and that is how we are connected." It is these fundamental principles of community that give a sense of unity.

Larysa Denysenko, a lawyer and human rights activist, one of the lawyers representing citizens in the European Court of Human Rights and co-founder of YurFem, shared with the audience the difficulties of legal certainty faced by the law due to unclear moral and ethical categories.

The virtues of law respect man and humanity, which we must demonstrate throughout our professional lives. Institutional norms work for the benefit of man, taking into account all the diversity of people, which means that there are endless opportunities for dialogue. Such is the representation of lawyers. In Ukrainian law, each community (judges, lawyers, prosecutors) has its codes of ethics, as if living by different ethical tenets. It is important not to lose a person: empathy, virtue, service, and active position will be a virtuous way of life: "The challenge to human rights today is not only to train the muscle of humanity but also to think about people who are in vulnerable states. "

Anton Martynov (founder of the publishing house "Laboratory") and moderator Anna Ulyura encouraged to think about anthology in its literal sense. After all, we now call it the science of virtues, once anthology was a collection of deeds of famous people.

Biographies in the non-fiction sector have always been and remain the most popular. If we consider virtue as an inner quality of a person that helps to pave the way to a good goal, then reading the biographies of famous people will be a kind of mapping of this path. Remain human in the company of other people and learn the limitations that will ensure such coexistence. The hits-biographies of "Laboratory" (told by Anton Martinov) are "Churchill and Orwell" by Thomas Rix and "Hitler and Stalin" by Lawrence Rees; no matter how embarrassing the success of the second book may seem, it still concerns the tools of self-restraint.

Philosopher, lawyer, founder of the educational platforms "Club of Creative Philosophy" and "Workshop of Political Transformations," Alexander Komarov picked up and developed the theme of volitional restraint as human in man.

Biological, mental, moral life of man has certain laws that on a practical level do not differ from the laws of nature. But in these processes it is man who is doomed to morality. Virtues are inherent in man, in the animal world we do not see such a degree of self-restraint. Man is individualized in the process of socialization, he is not dissolved in the community, but he can not exist without others. We must always take care of our own boundaries, but have flexible boundaries with other people. This is called a vulnerability, it can and should be buffered (otherwise it will be an extremely traumatic experience). Morality acts as a buffer. In the role of an instrument of morality - virtues, that is, moral self-overcoming. As an individual, I can achieve my goal in a very aggressive way, I can become passive and completely lose my goal in collective processes, but if I find a position where my self-improvement serves the interests of society, it will be a space for virtues. Having formal virtues is just the beginning. The goal is an active life, when we have measured the vulnerability and play a win-win game, balancing our success with other players. At this stage, virtues become principles that people are really guided by, not formally. "And it turns out that the right success is the key to acquiring virtues," - said Alexander Komarov.