Civic virtue
Civic virtue is the cultivation of
In republics
Civic virtues are historically taught as a matter of chief concern in nations under
In ancient Greece and Rome
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In the
Rome, even more than Greece, produced a number of moralistic philosophers such as Cicero, and moralistic historians such as Tacitus, Sallust, Plutarch and Livy. Many of these figures were either personally involved in power struggles that took place in the late Roman Republic, or wrote elegies to liberty which was lost during their transition to the Roman Empire. They tended to blame this loss of liberty on the perceived lack of civic virtue in their contemporaries, contrasting them with idealistic examples of virtue drawn from Roman history, and even non-Roman "barbarians".
During the Medieval Age and the Renaissance
Texts of antiquity became very popular by the
During the Enlightenment
Civic virtue was very popular during
In the republican revolutions of the 18th century
Civic virtue also became a matter of public interest and discussion during the 18th century, in part because of the American Revolutionary War. An anecdote first published in 1906 has Benjamin Franklin answer a woman who asked him, "Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?" He responded: "A Republic, if you can keep it."[3] The current use for this quotation is to bolster with Franklin's authority the opinion that republics require the cultivation of specific political beliefs, interests, and habits among their citizens, and that if those habits are not cultivated, they are in danger of falling back into some sort of authoritarian rule, such as a monarchy.
American historian
Authority for this ideal was found once more among the classical, and especially the Roman, political authors and historians. But since the Roman writers wrote during a time when the Roman republican ideal was fading away, its forms but not its spirit or substance being preserved in the Roman Empire, the 18th-century American and
These widely held ideals led American revolutionaries to found institutions such as the Society of the Cincinnati, named after the Roman farmer and dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who according to Livy left his farm to lead the army of the Roman republic during a crisis, and voluntarily returned to his plow once the crisis had passed. About Cincinnatus, Livy writes:
Operae pretium est audire qui omnia prae diuitiis humana spernunt neque honori magno locum neque uirtuti putant esse, nisi ubi effuse afluant opes....
(It is worth while for those who disdain all human things for money, and who suppose that there is no room either for great honor or virtue, except where wealth is found, to listen to his story.)— Livy,Ab Urbe Condita, book III.
19th to mid-20th century
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2008) |
Civic virtues were especially important during the 19th and 20th century.[
Conservatism emphasized family values and obedience to the father and the state. Nationalism carried by masses of people made patriotism an important civic virtue. Liberalism combined republicanism with a belief in progress and liberalization based on capitalism. Civic virtues focused on individual behavior and responsibility were very important. Many liberals turned into socialists or conservatives in the end of the 19th century and early 20th century.[according to whom?] Others became social liberals, valuing capitalism with a strong government to protect the poor. A focus on agriculture and landed nobility was supplanted by a focus on industry and civil society.
An important civic virtue for
"The People's State will classify its population in three groups: Citizens, subjects of the State, and aliens.
The principle is that birth within the confines of the State gives only the status of a subject. It does not carry with it the right to fill any position under the State or to participate in political life, such as taking an active or passive part in elections. Another principle is that the race and nationality of every subject of the State will have to be proved. A subject is at any time free to cease being a subject and to become a citizen of that country to which he belongs in virtue of his nationality. The only difference between an alien and a subject of the State is that the former is a citizen of another country.
[...]The citizen has privileges which are not accorded to the alien. He is the master in the Reich. But this high honour has also its obligations. Those who show themselves without personal honour or character, or common criminals, or traitors to the fatherland, can at any time be deprived of the rights of citizenship. Therewith they become merely subjects of the State."
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Volume II: The National Socialist Movement, Chapter III: Subjects and Citizens
In later times
A number of institutions and organizations promote the idea of civic virtue in the older democracies. Among such organizations are the Boy Scouts of America, and Civil Air Patrol whose U.S. oath, Cadet Oath and Cadet Honor Code reflect a goal to foster habits aimed at serving a larger community:
Boy Scouts of America Scout Oath:
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Boy Scouts of America Scout Law:
A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
Cadet Oath:
I pledge that I will serve faithfully in the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program, and that I will attend meetings regularly, participate actively in unit activities, obey my officers, wear my uniform properly, and advance my education and training rapidly to prepare myself to be of service to my community, state and nation.
Air Force Academy Cadet Honor Code:
We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and live honorably (so help me God).
Institutions that might be said to encourage civic virtue include the school, particularly with social studies courses, and the prison, namely in its rehabilitative function.
Other, later phenomena associated with the concept of civic virtue include
Comparable ideas in non-Western societies
Confucianism, which specifies cultural virtues and traditions which all members of society are to observe, in particular the heads of households and those who govern, was the basis of Chinese society for more than 2000 years and is still influential in modern China. Its related concepts can be compared to the Western idea of civic virtue.
Related concepts
- Friendliness
- Friendliness is a duellingin response to an intolerable insult has been considered a civil behavior in many cultures, but it is not a friendly action.
- Politeness
- Politeness focuses on the application of good manners or etiquette. Because politeness is informed by cultural values, there is substantial overlap between what is polite and what is civil. However, if the action in question is not related to civic virtues, then it may be polite or rude, without strictly being considered civil or incivil.
- Social graces
- The social graces include , which are unrelated to civility.
- Incivility
- Incivility is a general term for social behavior lacking in civic virtue or good
- The distinction between plain rudeness, and perceived incivility as threat, will depend on some notion of "civility" as structural to society; incivility as anything more ominous than bad manners is therefore dependent on appeal to notions like its antagonism to the complex concepts of civic virtue or civil society. It has become a contemporary political issue in a number of countries.[6]
See also
- Arete
- Civic engagement
- Civic nationalism
- Civic virtue (organizational citizenship behavior dimension), specific to organizational behavior theory
- Civil disobedience
- Civil religion
- Classical republicanism
- Commonwealth men
- Courtesy
- "England expects that every man will do his duty"
- Good citizenship
- Public good
- Republicanism
- Theological virtues
- Virtus
Footnotes
- ^ John Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (London 1993)[page needed]
- ^ Daniel Roche, La France des Lumières (Paris 1993)[page needed]
- ^ 1593. Benjamin Franklin (1706–90). Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989[page needed]
- ]
- ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised ed.). Oxford University Press.[page needed]
- ^ "Incivility in Political Discourse (The Coming Apogee of the Moonbat Hordes)". [InDC Journal]. 2004-10-13. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2006-11-25.[page needed]
Bibliography
- John Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (London 1993)
- Daniel Roche, La France des Lumières (Paris 1993)
- Parker, Harold T. The Cult of Antiquity and the French Revolutionaries (Univ. Chicago, 1937)
- Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Univ. North Carolina Press 1969, repr. Horton 1975) ISBN 0-393-00644-1
- Peggy Noonan (2008) Patriotic Grace
- Stephen L. Carter Integrity