305. Public and private virtues
In preceding items of this blog, I adopted the
definition of virtues as needed for the good life, and I struggled with the
following problem. On the one hand, I want to move from the liberal ethics of
only utility, where virtues are a matter to be left to individuals, not a
matter of public concern, to a virtue ethic, where at least some virtues are a
matter of public concern. On the other hand, I am wary of paternalism and loss
of freedom for individuals to make their own choice of what the good life is.
As I put it in one item (nr. 280): I want to fight liberalism with liberal
means. Here, I make a further attempt at clarification.
While the term ‘virtue’ may suggest an imposition on
people to behave in a certain way, to ‘act normal’, as the Dutch prime minister
Mark Rutte put it recently, my intention is to lay a basis for diversity,
allowing for quirks and weirdo’s, compatriots and refugees.
The paragon of the paradox of combining diversity, going
your own way, and normality, conforming to norms, arises in the combination of
democracy and the law.[i] Democracy aims at
diversity, with the liberal freedoms to allow for it, to be guaranteed by
universal law, applying indiscriminately to all.
Democracy is substantive, concerns the content, the
substance of life. The law is procedural, concerns how to proceed in dealings
with other people in order to provide the room for diversity.
But laws alone do not suffice. Those say mostly what
is not allowed, not to encroach upon the room for action of others. That is
only negative power: constraining the room for choice. We also need positive
power: providing the room and the competencies for choice.
I recall that trust is giving room for conduct,
distrust is constraining it. We need as much trust as wisdom permits, giving
room for action and accepting the risk of it, without becoming blind to it.
Earlier, I adopted the definition of virtues as
character traits needed for the good life. Here, I change my mind. Like trust, virtue
has a competence side and an intentional side. One needs virtues for the
competence of leading a good life, but also for the will, the intention and
commitment to do so to the best of one’s competence. Perhaps this is precisely
what character entails. Those virtues, the competence and the will, need to be
developed in upbringing and education.
Now, I propose that some virtues are public, as extensions
of the law, and partly lying behind the law, as the source from which the law
emerges, in democratic debate. Those virtues are mostly procedural, and need to be shared, as
public virtues, as a basis for allowing and enabling people to exercise their
choices of the good life. Other virtues are more private, substantial, and vary
with the choices that people make for the good life.
The ‘cardinal’ virtues of reason, courage, moderation,
and justice are mostly, but not entirely, public. Reason is needed for being
reasonable, being able and willing to listen and understand others, give and take
criticism. The virtue of justice is needed to grant people their right to
existence and dignity, acknowledge equality under the law, and empathy: being
able and willing to understand people in their views, positions, and
predicaments. That also requires the virtue of moderation, in give and take.
One may be immodest in ambition and a drive for excellence, but not at the
expense of others. The virtue of courage is partly private, to strive and take
risks in the pursuit of the good life, but also public, in the courage to face
one’s shortcomings, and to take personal and public responsibility.
Next to those classical virtues there are the
Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. Those also can be public next to
private, or would preferably be so. Faith in the potential for the good in
people and in relations, hope that it will be realised, and the courage to risk
it.
And then there is a whole range of possible, more
personal virtues, depending on one’s choice of the good life, with more or less
emphasis on ambition, courage, risk-taking, strength, truthfulness, loyalty,
generosity, gentleness, adventure seeking, excitement, change, equilibrium,
peace of mind, solitude, gregariousness, spirituality, material enjoyment, humour,
seriousness, etc.
[i] I was inspired to this by a lecture by Herman Tjeenk Willink.
No comments:
Post a Comment