Virtue in Political Life : Yves Simon's Political Philosophy for Our Times

Yves R. Simon (1903-1961), one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, gives a modern formulation for many classical philosophical concepts such as authority, the common good, and natural law. These topics have received extensive attention from scholars. Simon also discusses the nature of human virtue, moral and intellectual, but this topic has been less studied until now. The idea of virtue, and in our case virtue in political life, runs through Simon’s works. Through a close study of Simon’s works and the relevant secondary literature, this book explores Simon’s definition of virtue in order to highlight its originality, and show how he weaves the need for it into the fabric of three facets of political life, namely, the common good, the virtue of the ruler and the ruled, and the law. These ideas are important for the ruler-ship of any country and especially of developing nations which are populated by sit-tight dictators. Philosophy can be dry and abstract, yet in this case we deal with one of its more practical manifestations. Cover 1 Title page 2 Copyright page 3 Dedication 4 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 10 Preface 12 Chapter 1 - The Definition of Moral Virtue 18 I: Modern Substitutes for Virtue and their Inadequacy 18 The Recourse to Natural Goodness 20 Social Engineering 30 Psycho-Technology 38 II: Towards a Definition of Virtue 48 Problems of Translation Regarding Hexis 49 Virtue is not Habit 50 Virtue is not Grounded in Opinion 58 Virtue is not Science 61 III: Understanding Aristotle’s Definition of Virtue 67 Distinguishing Virtue from a False Intention and from Vice 67 The Intellectual and Moral Virtues in Practice 69 The Interdependence of the Virtues: The Aristotelian and Stoic Positions 73 The Definition of Moral Virtue 75 Knowledge of Moral Axioms through Instinct 77 Chapter 2: Virtue in Public Life: Simon’s Concept of the Common Good 80 I: Brief Historical Overview 80 Introduction 80 The Birth and Evolution of the Concept: Ancient Greek Philosophy to Medieval Times 81 The State of the Concept in Modern and Contemporary Thought 86 II: The Threefold Classificatory Scheme of Virginia Held as Outlined in the Public Interest and Individual Interests and her Concept of the Public Interest 96 Preliminary Considerations 96 The “Preponderance Theories” of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, and Jeremy Bentham 100 The “Public Interest as Common Interest” Theory 107 The “Unitary Conception” 111 Virginia Held’s Proposed Constituent Elements of the Common Good 118 III: Simon’s Concept of the Common Good 124 Two Misconceptions of the Common Good 126 Simon’s Concept of the Common Good 135 Drawing the Threads Together 146 Chapter 3: Virtue in Public Life: The Virtue of Theoretical Truth and the Virtue of the Ruler and the Ruled 150 Introduction 150 I: The Virtue of Theoretical Truth 152 The Truth Value of Witness 152 The Truth Value of Science 154 The Truth Value of Creative Freedom 156 Freedom of the Intellect: The Trouble with the Position of the Liberals 158 Truth and the Market Place of Ideas 165 The Role of Authority in Teaching Transcendent Truth 167 II: The Virtue of the Ruler and the Ruled 170 Rule by the Virtuous 170 Rule by the Experts or by an Elite 182 Freedom from Self: Obedience as Perfective 188 Chapter 4: Virtue In Public Life: Virtue and Law 200 Introduction 200 I: Virtue and the Idea of Natural Law and Philosophical Challenges to the Idea 202 The Idea of Natural Law 202 Philosophical Challenges to the Idea of Natural Law 206 II: Virtue and Facets of Positive Law and Natural Law 219 On the Existence of the Just by Nature 219 On Knowledge of Natural Moral Law 223 On Law as Premise and Conclusion: The Role of Virtue 230 On God as the Author of Natural Law and Natural Moral Law 234 Conclusion 240 Bibliography 246 Back cover 256