In today's world, it's commonplace to signal how much you care about important issues online, or how generous you are, or how righteous. In other words, virtue signaling. But why is that so important? It is because virtue is important. But virtue is not about what you signal, it is about who you are in truth. To consider what the real word means, and how it shaped today's world, let's transport ourselves back in time to an era or two before smartphones and social media.
The Ancient Romans loved and revered Ancient Greek philosophy, and adapted a great deal of their culture directly from Greek thought. The Roman Virtues were a synthesis of Ancient Greek Stoicism and Aristotelean Ethics with distinct Roman values like pietas (duty to family and the state) and fides (faithfulness).
Much like the Romans were obsessed about Greek thought, the Founding Fathers of the United States were completely obsessed with Antiquity. They discussed and quoted it endlessly. Thomas Jefferson's library is a library of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Plutarch's Lives, Tacitus's Annals, Livy's Histories, Homer and Virgil, and several copies of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Adams admired Stoicism's self-control, discipline, and resilience. Washington modeled himself after Cincinnatus, the Roman who was given dictatorial power temporarily to save the Republic, then relinquished it voluntarily:
This was the Enlightenment, where the fractured connections to Antiquity had been repaired and great men were pouring over ancient knowledge to reframe it into a modern context, with its developments in science and reason, and reshape the world. In those connections to Antiquity, the Founders saw countless exemplars of virtue that inspired them to excellence. They asked themselves how they could be more like Cincinnatus, with his civic virtue to step back from absolute power, or Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor who practiced restraint and thoughtfulness.
A fine example is that of the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers. Founders published both as they debated back and forth on the formation of the Constitution. The Federalists used pseudonyms like Publius in support of ratifying the Constitution. Publius Valerius Publicola was co-founder of the Roman Republic, which had supplanted monarchy. The Anti-Federalists, who pushed for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights, took on the pseudonym of Brutus, who opposed what he saw as the tyranny of Julius Caesar.
Every action was seen through the lens of virtue in some way. What is the ideal form of a man, and how can we try to live up to that ideal as we reshape the world? Indeed, virtue is referencing over 6,000 times in the Founders' writings:
Selecting a random result from the National Archives, we see Benjamin Franklin thoroughly enraptured by the subject of virtue in one of his essays, which describes in great detail how a man achieves greatness through fundamental virtue rather than knowledge, wealth, or power alone:
founders.archives.gov
Cicero describes the Roman Virtues as follows, in De Officiis, Book 1: Moral Goodness:
Cicero didn't just speak of virtue, he lived it. He defended the republic by publicly opposing Mark Antony's consolidation of power during the Second Triumvirate with his attacks in the Philippics, and was marked for death as a result. He fled Rome, but Antony's soldiers captured him. He extended his neck to his assassin, saying, "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." Antony displayed his severed head and hands in the Rostra of the Roman Forum -- where Cicero had orated in defense of the republic -- as revenge. More than two thousand years later, we still read Cicero's prolific works which were singled out for careful historic preservation since the fall of Rome, and his writings on virtue and republican ideals helped define the modern world. Mark Antony, meanwhile, is just another man who vied for power. Perhaps it would have been enough had he won against Octavian, but there is something to Benjamin Franklin's words about wealth, power, and knowledge alone not being enough.
Virtue is not a superficial display to reward yourself for having the correct opinion. It is what great men quietly strived for when forming the world we all live in today. They were deeply flawed, as were the Romans, as were the Greeks, as were the tribal peoples, and as we all are. Rather than seeing ourselves as flawless and righteous, it is the stark recognition of our flaws, and the desire to forge ahead anyway, that allows us to aim for greatness. A purely self-righteous society, or a purely cynical society, is a doomed one. By studying the classics, we can understand that fact, too, with dire urgency, just as the Founders did.
The Ancient Romans loved and revered Ancient Greek philosophy, and adapted a great deal of their culture directly from Greek thought. The Roman Virtues were a synthesis of Ancient Greek Stoicism and Aristotelean Ethics with distinct Roman values like pietas (duty to family and the state) and fides (faithfulness).
Much like the Romans were obsessed about Greek thought, the Founding Fathers of the United States were completely obsessed with Antiquity. They discussed and quoted it endlessly. Thomas Jefferson's library is a library of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Plutarch's Lives, Tacitus's Annals, Livy's Histories, Homer and Virgil, and several copies of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Adams admired Stoicism's self-control, discipline, and resilience. Washington modeled himself after Cincinnatus, the Roman who was given dictatorial power temporarily to save the Republic, then relinquished it voluntarily:
Wikipedia said:
This was the Enlightenment, where the fractured connections to Antiquity had been repaired and great men were pouring over ancient knowledge to reframe it into a modern context, with its developments in science and reason, and reshape the world. In those connections to Antiquity, the Founders saw countless exemplars of virtue that inspired them to excellence. They asked themselves how they could be more like Cincinnatus, with his civic virtue to step back from absolute power, or Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor who practiced restraint and thoughtfulness.
A fine example is that of the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers. Founders published both as they debated back and forth on the formation of the Constitution. The Federalists used pseudonyms like Publius in support of ratifying the Constitution. Publius Valerius Publicola was co-founder of the Roman Republic, which had supplanted monarchy. The Anti-Federalists, who pushed for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights, took on the pseudonym of Brutus, who opposed what he saw as the tyranny of Julius Caesar.
Every action was seen through the lens of virtue in some way. What is the ideal form of a man, and how can we try to live up to that ideal as we reshape the world? Indeed, virtue is referencing over 6,000 times in the Founders' writings:
Selecting a random result from the National Archives, we see Benjamin Franklin thoroughly enraptured by the subject of virtue in one of his essays, which describes in great detail how a man achieves greatness through fundamental virtue rather than knowledge, wealth, or power alone:
Founders Online: The Busy-Body, No. 3, 18 February 1729
The Busy-Body, No. 3, 18 February 1729
Benjamin Franklin said:
Cicero describes the Roman Virtues as follows, in De Officiis, Book 1: Moral Goodness:
Cicero said:
Cicero didn't just speak of virtue, he lived it. He defended the republic by publicly opposing Mark Antony's consolidation of power during the Second Triumvirate with his attacks in the Philippics, and was marked for death as a result. He fled Rome, but Antony's soldiers captured him. He extended his neck to his assassin, saying, "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." Antony displayed his severed head and hands in the Rostra of the Roman Forum -- where Cicero had orated in defense of the republic -- as revenge. More than two thousand years later, we still read Cicero's prolific works which were singled out for careful historic preservation since the fall of Rome, and his writings on virtue and republican ideals helped define the modern world. Mark Antony, meanwhile, is just another man who vied for power. Perhaps it would have been enough had he won against Octavian, but there is something to Benjamin Franklin's words about wealth, power, and knowledge alone not being enough.
Virtue is not a superficial display to reward yourself for having the correct opinion. It is what great men quietly strived for when forming the world we all live in today. They were deeply flawed, as were the Romans, as were the Greeks, as were the tribal peoples, and as we all are. Rather than seeing ourselves as flawless and righteous, it is the stark recognition of our flaws, and the desire to forge ahead anyway, that allows us to aim for greatness. A purely self-righteous society, or a purely cynical society, is a doomed one. By studying the classics, we can understand that fact, too, with dire urgency, just as the Founders did.
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