Exploring the moral foundations of the Republic on the occasion of America's 250th anniversary.
The occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is an invitation to every American to consider anew the moral foundations of the Republic. In his Farewell Address, George Washington wrote that "virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government," a fitting bookend to his First Inaugural, where he proclaimed that "there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness." Washington believed that the blessings of virtue applied not only to us as individuals, but also as a nation: "Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?"
Of course, Washington was not the only Founder who spoke frequently about virtue. In 1798, John Adams famously wrote to the Massachusetts Militia that "our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Indeed, many of the Founders spoke often and earnestly about "virtue."
But what did the Founders mean by "virtue," why did they discuss virtue with such frequency and urgency, how did their understanding of virtue influence their creation and understanding of law, and what thinkers, from across the millennia, informed the Founders' views about virtue? As we celebrate the Semiquincentennial, it is fitting that this course takes these historical questions as the starting point.
To understand the Founders, you will read works of moral philosophy that informed — directly or indirectly — their views and their decisions, such as those of Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Locke, and others. The tradition the Founders inherited was a varied one, and the weekly pairings of historical and philosophical sources are designed to let you examine its continuities and divergences, not to presume them.
At the same time, the works of moral philosophy gathered here provide accounts of virtue and the good life that have commanded serious attention for millennia. So, although the course takes the historical questions about the Founding as the starting point, the course necessarily invites you to consider the soundness and ongoing relevance of the principles to which the Founders appealed. Are these principles — or some version of these principles — true?
Over eleven weeks, you will read philosophical sources that shaped the Founders' understanding of the traditional values of virtue. You will also explore the relationship between virtue and individual liberty, and the extent to which the rule of law rests on a foundation of liberty and virtue and, at the same time, also reinforces those values. The course will end with a discussion of virtue in your own life today, both professionally and personally.
The course has three segments. Click any week below to access the readings and discussion questions for that session.
These weeks will explore what the Founders thought of "virtue," and how it relates to their views on natural law. By the end of Week 6, you will have a sense of how the Founders' understandings of virtue shaped the Declaration, the Revolution, and the Constitution.
These three weeks engage one of the most important contemporary debates in constitutional theory: whether moral reasoning is important to constitutional interpretation, and, if it is, what kind of moral reasoning should be considered.
Week 10 takes up the professional life — what makes a lawyer good, the ethics of judging, and the place of virtue in legal practice. The course finishes in Week 11 with an exploration of virtue in modern personal life.
The Federalist Society wishes to thank the following scholars for their contributions to this course.