Importance of Covetousness

In the beginning of the chapter Taylor emphasizes the similarities between the vices, something which she has done all along; however, in this chapter she seems to connect all the vices back to covetousness, with the exception of sloth. She states that the miserly and envious are covetous in that they want to increase their hoard and want what belongs to others respectively. The vain are similarly covetous in that they desire flattery excessively. She states that "covetousness is indeed a feature shared by the vicious, the only exception being sloth" (93).

To me it almost seems the covetousness is the only true vice, and the variations (envy, gluttony, lust, pride, etc) are just different means of manifesting this desire of gaining more of something you feel you lack. Taylor admits to the importance of covetousness in all the vices except for sloth, which relating to an earlier blog post of mine seems to suggest that sloth lacks something to make it vicious. I feel that covetousness is necessary to make something a vice, and since sloth lacks this, it fails to be vicious. Since covetousness plays such an important role in each of the vices and their corruption of the self, i feel that it is the only true vice; envy, pride, gluttony, etc are just different ways of manifesting covetousness.