Civic Virtue

Any discussion of civic virtue must begin with the meaning of virtue in general. A virtue, on the standard view at least since Aristotle, is a settled disposition exhibiting type-specific excellence. Thus, for example, since the central purpose of a knife is to cut things, it is a virtue in knives to be sharp. Similarly, one might argue, since sociability is an important characteristic of human beings, it is a human virtue to be disposed to form friendships. To be a genuine virtue, of course, this disposition must be firmly settled or resilient: much as it would detract from the virtuosity of an exceptionally sharp knife if its edge dulled after a single use, so too would it detract from the virtue of a human being if he or she were only a fair weather friend. Civic virtues are a species of human virtue – specifically, they are those settled dispositions in human beings that exhibit the excellences relevant to membership in a political community. Put another way, civic virtue is simply the character of a good citizen.