We can use a Mahatma Ghandi or a Mother Teresa as a moral exemplar to figure out what our virtues should be. But we cannot use an Usain Bolt or a Serena Williams as a physical exemplar to figure out what our physical capabilities should be. Why this disanalogy between moral and physical excellence?
It’s our intuition that Bolt and Williams exceed the physical norms for humans to a significant degree. But although Ghandi and Mother Teresa did many supererogatory things, I do not think they overall exceed the moral norms for human character to a significant degree. We should be like them, and our falling short is largely our fault.
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The biggest disanalogy is that moral virtues are virtues of the person qua person, while the physical virtues are not; they are virtues of the person qua athlete or something. The kind of physical virtues that you should aim at developing are those that best support you qua person, and then (to get more determinate) those that best support you in your particular office. It’s probably important that you keep up your indoor rock climbing ability, insofar as it helps contribute to your philosophizing, your longevity, and so on. But being able to run extremely fast would seem to be a much lower priority for the things you personally are charged with doing.
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