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Part 2, further analyses and discussion.

In our previous instalment, we discussed how moral philosophy influenced the founding fathers' personal and political development

and the emphasis they placed on living virtuously.

It might be interesting to begin this section then by challenging the role that virtue ought to play

within political life. In our episode on Machiavelli, we spoke about the ruler betrayed in

the prince who, unlike the ruler of Confucian political philosophy, for example,

must live a life of virtue and vice in order to maintain order.

But the founders aspire to embody virtue in all aspects of their character.

But I wonder if this is what we really want from our rulers.

At times, don't we want them to deceive and betray

on behalf for the good of the nation? What do you make of this Machiavellian critique, Jeff,

that the founding fathers were too good to be rulers, aspired to be too good rather?

The founders read Machiavellian, in in fact the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by

Jordan Mason, talks about the importance of frequent recurrence to the virtues of temperance and

prudence, which Mason was quoting from Machiavelli. There's much to say about the clash between

the civic Republicans who insisted on achieving

virtue in common for the benefit of the polity and the liberals who put more faith in

institutional checks. At the moment, America's about to have a presidential election where there's a widespread

fear of demagogues, populists who flatter the people and exalt their own ambition in an effort

either to divide the union or install themselves as authoritarian. And that fear was so central to the founders

...