Philosophical View of Virtue in Politics Analytical Essay by scribbler

This paper explores the idea of virtue and its relation to politics in several important ancient authors, including Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Augustine and Machiavelli. The paper goes on to demonstrate how the notion of virtue in all these philosophical authors is intimately connected with politics. The paper explains that in the Greek view, moral virtue is the groundwork for political selection and leadership, and this moral view of political virtue is carried through Augustine, although he alters it in line with his Christian view. The paper discusses how Plutarch emphasizes glory and military example in his praise of leaders, not rejecting the earlier positions but taking them in a different direction toward external reputation and the generous distribution of honors and goods. The paper shows how it is only with Machiavelli that a clearly new concept of virtue is employed to assert that the political leader must act with willingness against morality to secure the preservation of power.