Private virtue definition
Private virtue here means moral traits or habits for which the larger institutional order is, within very wide limits, irrelevant. Virtuous living in this sense takes as given and thus does not much care about what shape the larger society has. Being honest or trustworthy is, for instance, a trait all people can exhibit whether the society is equalitarian or aristocratic. As conservatives typically conceive them, private virtues give strength of character to an individual because they discipline wanton desires for pleasure—and these disciplines typically include