Four virtues in the context of "Classical philosophy"

In philosophy and religion, the passions are understood to be the emotions, instincts and desires that drive a human being (including lust, anger, aggression, jealousy, etc.). Different philosophical traditions hold different views about the passions. The philosophical notion of passion, in contrast, is generally identified with instinctually driven emotional states, in many ancient philosophies and religious doctrines, the passions are the basis for deadly sins and seen as leading to various social and spiritual ills. In Western philosophical traditions, the passions are often placed in opposition to reason.

Some seventeenth-century philosophers worked within an intellectual "milieu" in which the passions were regarded as a potent element of human nature, capable of disrupting any civilized order, including philosophy, unless they were tamed, outwitted, overruled, or seduced. Natural philosophy deals with the actions and operations of passions, and the task of moral philosophy is to explore whether and how the passions can, or should be bridled, and how their indifference is transformed into good or evil by virtue of the domination of right reason. Reason is advocated in the control of passion, something seen as desirable and necessary for the development of a mature, civilized human being. This is achieved by the cultivation of virtue. Four virtues in particular have long been seen as of special value in this area of philosophy.