AN UNALIENABLE RIGHT TO VIRTUE: Explorations on Aristotelian Civic Virtue in the Context of the Founding of the United States of America
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2016-06-15
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en
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This paper explores the role of Aristotelian ideas on civic virtue in the founding of the United States political system. By having Aristotle’s thinking engage with the so-called ‘Charters of Freedom,’ the author uncovers parallels between the notions of civic virtue established by the classical philosopher and the thinking that served as foundational to the United States political context. The author does so by first presenting and analyzing Aristotle’s ideas on ethics and politics before showing how similar connections between the ethical and political are expressed within the founding documents of the United States. The author relates this examination to a contemporary context that raises the question of why appeals to civic virtue are a recurring phenomenon in American politics, notwithstanding rather forceful historic and contemporary populist currents. The understanding of Aristotle’s ideas developed here by the author foreground the extent to which an Aristotelian-like appeal to rational civic virtue is in fact deeply ingrained in American politics.
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