Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Civic virtues are character traits according to which people are disposed to act for the right reasons, at the right times, and in the right ways with the political sphere of life. Inculcating these virtues is often taken to be an important part of civic education, and therefore understanding what these virtues are is of pedagogical importance. One important question about civic virtues is how they relate to more general virtues of character. We consider two likely possibilities: civic virtues may be sui generis virtues with distinctly political content, or they may be the political instantiation of general virtues of character. We find both alternatives wanting, but argue that these philosophical difficulties can be leveraged for pedagogical purposes in order to engage civics students and help them learn to tolerate complexity.
Smith et al. (Mon,) studied this question.