“there is no Brutus for Putin” in two senses: (1) having more room to maneuver than Caesar, Putin has ensured that a no inner cabal with sufficient influence can arise, and (2) those in Putin’s inner circle have been thoroughly morally compromised [a reasonable guess - how certain can we be?].
“any western political leader you’d care to mention” [lacks honor]
Really? There are a lot of western political leaders.
“The ultimate cost of abandoning virtue ethics has been far greater than anyone could have calculated.”
As I understand it, virtue ethics is just about individual action. But clearly culture has a lot to do with the prevalence of virtue ethics in a society. I take it that you are claiming that cultures around the world have backed off inculcating virtue ethics in their individuals.
[Note to self: review Chaos Ethics by Chris Bateman]
Regarding whether there is an honourable western political leader out there, I am open to suggestions for who would qualify, but I've looked hard and found slim pickings. As came up in this week's The Shakespearean Now piece, those with principles are usually *prevented* from taking power by the entrenched establishment. It's a terrible arrangement for everyone (except, of course, those allied to the establishment).
As for virtue ethics, I think it is about more than just conditioning individual action - this is something of a retrospective recasting of virtue into a action-outcome focus (it's very 'scientific' to come at it this way! 🙂). Rather, virtue is about the qualities of the agents taking that action, and it is absolutely a cultural matter. To practice virtue is to care about the qualities that people possess, and we have been moving away from this for more than two centuries now. Honour and virtue travel together.
I don't see this so much as a failure to inculcate as it is a radical shift in how we think about our lives. Cultures rooted in virtue ethics saw each human life as a complete story. You can find this in the novels of Jane Austen, for instance, which might be virtue's last stand. But we have eroded this way of looking at life, and now are resistant to thinking in terms of this 'whole of life' perspective that was so crucial to the Greeks, the ancient Chinese, and so many other cultures over the centuries. The cost of giving this up has been far more substantial than anyone seems to realise.
"Suppression of the press, violence and lawfare against the opposition... we may pray that our own nations don’t end up where Russia is now..." Any irony here? I guess we're still not quite as bad off as Russia. But I think we're inching our way there.
There was indeed a touch of irony here... 🙂 But the United States is nowhere near as far down this path as Russia, as you say. And the fact we can see the direction of travel gives us some hope to intervene, perhaps.
Nice. We end up considering virtue ethics.
“there is no Brutus for Putin” in two senses: (1) having more room to maneuver than Caesar, Putin has ensured that a no inner cabal with sufficient influence can arise, and (2) those in Putin’s inner circle have been thoroughly morally compromised [a reasonable guess - how certain can we be?].
“any western political leader you’d care to mention” [lacks honor]
Really? There are a lot of western political leaders.
“The ultimate cost of abandoning virtue ethics has been far greater than anyone could have calculated.”
As I understand it, virtue ethics is just about individual action. But clearly culture has a lot to do with the prevalence of virtue ethics in a society. I take it that you are claiming that cultures around the world have backed off inculcating virtue ethics in their individuals.
[Note to self: review Chaos Ethics by Chris Bateman]
Appreciate your engagement here, Frank!
Regarding whether there is an honourable western political leader out there, I am open to suggestions for who would qualify, but I've looked hard and found slim pickings. As came up in this week's The Shakespearean Now piece, those with principles are usually *prevented* from taking power by the entrenched establishment. It's a terrible arrangement for everyone (except, of course, those allied to the establishment).
As for virtue ethics, I think it is about more than just conditioning individual action - this is something of a retrospective recasting of virtue into a action-outcome focus (it's very 'scientific' to come at it this way! 🙂). Rather, virtue is about the qualities of the agents taking that action, and it is absolutely a cultural matter. To practice virtue is to care about the qualities that people possess, and we have been moving away from this for more than two centuries now. Honour and virtue travel together.
I don't see this so much as a failure to inculcate as it is a radical shift in how we think about our lives. Cultures rooted in virtue ethics saw each human life as a complete story. You can find this in the novels of Jane Austen, for instance, which might be virtue's last stand. But we have eroded this way of looking at life, and now are resistant to thinking in terms of this 'whole of life' perspective that was so crucial to the Greeks, the ancient Chinese, and so many other cultures over the centuries. The cost of giving this up has been far more substantial than anyone seems to realise.
Many thanks for engaging, Frank - appreciated!
Chris.
"Suppression of the press, violence and lawfare against the opposition... we may pray that our own nations don’t end up where Russia is now..." Any irony here? I guess we're still not quite as bad off as Russia. But I think we're inching our way there.
There was indeed a touch of irony here... 🙂 But the United States is nowhere near as far down this path as Russia, as you say. And the fact we can see the direction of travel gives us some hope to intervene, perhaps.