5th Pavia Graduate Conference in Political Philosophy – Abstract/Hope


Simon Hope

One Bad Argument for Civic Virtue, and One Good One

I address the common claim that a conception of civic virtue can be justified by appeal to the requirements of the stability of a just institutional scheme. I argue that while the requirements of stability do invoke considerations of character, they do not necessarily invoke maxims of virtue; consequently, the only account of civic character that can be grounded in the requirements of stability is a very modest one.