...This chapter outlines three arguments on behalf of a duty to vote: the Agency Argument, the Public Goods Argument, and the Civic Virtue Argument. The Agency Argument held that citizens should bear some causal responsibility in helping to produce and maintain a just social order with adequate levels...

...This concluding chapter argues that anxiety and even hostility have been shown to be the actions of states; when they put ideological dreams into effect, they become enemies of civility, and all too often politicize social actors so as to make them recalcitrant. Virtue should not be the business...

...,” the chapter turns to the concept of virtue, from which it distinguishes two meanings: one of which has something to do with time while the other has something to do with the Aristotelian concept of form. In both of Machiavelli's writings under discussion, both these concepts are brought together. Moreover...

...,” the chapter turns to the concept of virtue, from which it distinguishes two meanings: one of which has something to do with time while the other has something to do with the Aristotelian concept of form. In both of Machiavelli’s writings under discussion, both these concepts are brought together. Moreover...

...This chapter explores the reasons as to why the inherited complex of ideas concerning republican virtue and its place in social time was transmitted into the eighteenth century in the form so little changed and yet so radically challenged. It shows that the American Revolution and Constitution...

... and the Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century. It considers Foucault's genealogical historiography, a new and original tool for the analysis of history, and his arguments against the idea of a necessary and defining connection between knowledge and virtue, which had been the core identity...

...This chapter turns to the second aspect of the Problem of Paganism: virtue. The dominant view among scholastic theologians in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was that pagans could be genuinely virtuous, although their virtues were not of the sort which could merit salvation...

... virtue, he reveals his conviction that Italy “seems to be born to resurrect dead things, as one could see in poetry, painting, and sculpture.” He harshly criticizes the corruption of the church, accusing the church of Rome of keeping Italy divided, bringing about the death of “all devotion and all...

... and practices through which pious individuals assess their own and others' status in the eyes of God. The chapter first provides an overview of Shiʻi mystical theology before discussing how some key concepts, including insight, extrasensory vision, and the imaginal manifestations of sin and virtue, have become...

...This chapter begins by laying out a theory of competence in general and its application to epistemology. This is meant to round out the concept of virtue epistemology, which must essentially rely on a theory of competence. A competence is a disposition (ability) to succeed when one tries. When...

...This chapter offers a way out for the externalist virtue epistemologist, with implications for the perennial problematic of radical skepticism. Consisting of three parts, the chapter outlines some main components of the epistemology laid out in the earlier chapters while providing further...

...Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the virtue of moderation? Seeking to answer...

...This chapter looks into the contested debates of pagan virtue found in Augustine of Hippo's works. The critique of “pagan virtue” presents a special challenge for the Augustinian account of political hope. The chapter considers an alternative Augustinian account that recognizes non-Christians...

...This chapter focuses on the role that emotion plays in virtue, emphasizing that acting virtuously is the central and most important dimension of virtue. It analyses the centrality of roles in virtue as a matter of their being tied to virtuous action, which is more central than...

...This chapter defends the integral view of compassion against black box views. It argues that the combination of cleverness, a morally rectified sympathy trait, and supplementary moral knowledge suffices in principle to explain an agent's ability to pass the central test of virtue (CTV...

... of the Lockean view that authority depends on consent before discussing his six objections that are targeted specifically against the notion that legitimate government rests on tacit consent. It also analyzes Locke's distinction between natural and artificial virtues as well as his views on the obligation...

... and communitarianism, neo-Roman republicanism promises useful, persuasive accounts of civic virtue, justice, civility, and the ties that bind citizens. But republican revivalists, embedded in modern liberal, democratic, and constitutional concerns, almost never engage closely with Roman texts. This book takes up...

... a frustrating opacity that haunts even the most intensely glossed texts. Sometimes invoking the language of English liberty, they critiqued what they saw as metropolitan incursions into provincial virtue. Ultimately, however, these writers reconstructed neither national nor provincial language communities...

... order and his recognition that a basic level of order is all that can be achieved at times. The chapter also revisits the relationship between virtue and government in the Confucian conception of politics. rituals li rulers and ministers Xunzi Xunzi on rulers and ministers Machle Edward Rosemont...

...This chapter argues that involvement in politics is necessary for the full development of virtue. According to the Confucian view, a person cannot become fully virtuous in isolation from politics. The chapter argues against the contention that the Confucians adopted a purist approach, rejecting any...