As such, the institution of marriage is a foundation of a just political order and the
nursery of civic virtue, as spouses exercise mutual responsibility for raising their children.
It seeks to develop the
kinds of civic virtues and skills that can empower all citizens and, through them our social institutions, to play leading roles in the transition to sustainability.
No
catalog of civic virtues can be shown to be a prerequisite of academic excellence, a part of such excellence, or its product.
It is true that republicans also stress that for these institutions to be non-dominating they must be supplemented by a
sense of civic virtue in their citizens.
And they reflect the
lack of civic virtue which drives the increasing failure of our democratice institutions.
There was something of the republican
ideal of civic virtue expressed in that conversation on Valdimontone's hilltop perch — a glimpse of a level of Italian political functioning that rarely comes across in news media obsessed with the theatrics of Berlusconi - era national politics.
Which brings us back to localism and one of the inherent concerns: If we can't even imagine the
totality of civic virtues being associated within any specific geographic region, how can we expect them to be embodied in any specific locality?
It is a sad paradox that in our society, with its almost unprecedented need for mutual accommodation and the
practice of civic virtues, we should be so hesitant about developing the qualities in our children that they will most need if our society is to endure.
Augustine was formed in this same world, and he begins his response by appealing to the Roman
understanding of civic virtue as presented by Cicero in his treatise De Re Publica, a work both he and Volusian knew well.
To the extent that we are committed to the ideal of a secular society free of ecclesiastical influence and governed by toleration, liberty, and a
conception of civic virtue; and insofar as we think of true religious piety as consisting in treating other human beings with dignity and respect, and regard the Bible simply as a profound work of human literature with a universal moral message, we are the heirs of Spinoza's scandalous treatise.
Just as process - relational thought provides the framework for a new ethics of character and virtue, it also offers the foundation for the usual extension of that ethics in the
cultivation of civic virtue.
Amongst these are the emphasis on popular participation in politics, the
importance of civic virtue in citizens, the promotion of the common good over private interests, and a particular conception of freedom as the absence of arbitrary power.
Second, because only in small, culturally homogeneous populations could the affective basis for republican citizenship — i.e. the strong sense
of civic virtue required to re-orient private to public interest — be sustained.
This
type of civic virtue combined a disinterested concern for others with calculations of private welfare.
Or do we pray for the day when some brave new State Comptroller or authentic crime - busting Attorney General, devoted to upholding traditional
notions of civic virtue and public integrity, jumps into the fray?
Though based on events that took place 46 years ago, it's a
celebration of civic virtues in need of touting now — a free and feisty press, an independent judiciary, and a woman who finds her voice and purpose in a world ruled by men.
Civic educators are often quite frank about the need to subordinate not only truth but also academic achievement to the
imperatives of civic virtue.
But does this leave nothing to be said for the role of schools in fostering the
qualities of civic virtue on which, all moralists agree, the meaningful exercise of freedom depends?
The
depiction of civic virtue, honesty, and austerity became common themes of this genre and the severe composition and cold colors reflect the subject matter.This 1786 version was ordered by the Comte de Vaudreuil (depicted in the exhibition in a portrait by Elizabeth - Louise Vigée - Lebrun) and is nearly identical to the original, except that the artist added a staff with a cleft end holding wool near the feet of the women.
Four of the six chapters in Losing Our Virtue constitute the heart of the book and are devoted to themes liberally treated in Wells» first two volumes» materialistic consumption, image and style over substance, the therapeutic culture, the
lack of civic virtue, and, not least, society's aversion to truth, truth - telling, guilt, and moral accountability.
But for republicans embracing the
ideal of civic virtue, even though this new form of collective imagining might create a sense of community of some sort, it would not be sufficient for motivating the right kind of political behavior.
In ancient Rome it was to compete in popularity among the plebes and to satisfy the outsized self
sense of civic virtue.