Books, Arts & Manners: The Soul of American Politics

The Lost Soul of American Politics, by John P. Diggins (Basic, 409 pp., $23.95)

It may not be the way most of us think of politics but, at least in the classical tradition, politics is a moral enterprise. This does not mean that politics is typically conducted in a morally elevated, or even morally acceptable, manner. It does mean that politics addresses questions of right and wrong. Politics deals with the public dimensions of the virtuous life. Or so Aristotle, for one, believed. He left no doubt that his Politics was an extension of his Ethics. According to Aristotle, the question with which politics begins and to which it ever returns is simply this: How ought we to live together?

RJ

About the Author

Richard John Neuhaus

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Declaration of Independence

Abraham Lincoln

Ronald Reagan

Aristotle

Alexis de Tocqueville

The Lost Soul of American Politics, by John P. Diggins (Basic, 409 pp., $23.95)

It may not be the way most of us think of politics but, at least in the classical tradition, politics is a moral enterprise. This does not mean that politics is typically conducted in a morally elevated, or even morally acceptable, manner. It does mean that politics addresses questions of right and wrong. Politics deals with the public dimensions of the virtuous life. Or so Aristotle, for one, believed. He left no doubt that his Politics was an extension of his Ethics. According to Aristotle, the question with which politics begins and to which it ever returns is simply this: How ought we to live together?