Morality, Virtue and the Public Figure
Introduction
According to the dictionary Grand Robert, the term “public” means
“what concerns people as a whole and what belongs to the social or political community and is done in its name”; a public figure is defined as “a person who is invested with an official function or plays an important role in the social or political life of his or her country”. In relation to these definitions, it is possible to identify different categories of public figures with more or less important roles : a political figure such as a government Minister who creates laws and take important decisions for his country; an intellectual and a "star" who is defined as "an artistic performer or athlete whose leading role or superior performance is acknowledged" (www.dictionary.com).
This essay will firstly attempt to explain what is the meaning of morality, its importance and the relation with virtues, with some examples and then it will identify the rights and wrongs of expecting a public figure to have a higher standard of morality than someone with little or no public role, in relation to the different moral principles and virtues explained before.
I- Importance and meaning of morality and the relation with virtues
A) A short / quick definition
As Comte-Sponville defines it, "morality is composed of all duty, which means the obligations or proscriptions we impose on ourselves, independently from any / all reward or sanction and even hope"
(Comte-Sponville, 2000, Dictionnaire de la philosophie, p. 390).
To illustrate his theory he uses a very simple example : if tomorrow is the end of the world, morality will remain as it wouldn't allow people to kill, rape or be egoist or nasty, while politics which needs a future, won't survive.
Harman (1977) argues in the same way by highlighting more precisely that morality may be something we learn as a consequence of our upbringing. As Kant argues, an action is morally valuable only if it is selfless ("Les
Grandes idées morales et les grands moralistes", 1906). Morality requires us to respect humanity inside us and in other people.
In fact, someone will impose on himself these kinds of rules in a free and selfless way, because they appear to him to be universal. That means that whatever the differences between civilisations, periods or religions, people looking for wellbeing are leading to the...
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... as they don't use this kinds of argument to increase their popularity. Public figures do also have a right to privacy.
Moreover, some differences have been identified between countries with for example France, which doesn't care about politicians having affairs and Great Britain being very critical toward David Blunkett.
Finally, different standard of morality are expected from public figures according to their level of responsibility and the kind of decisions they have to make.
Bibliography
Ø Foggo, D; Hennessy, P; Peston, R, 2004, Blunkett's ex-lover accuses him of fast-tracking visa for her nanny, The Sunday Telegraph, 28
November 2004.
Ø Hampsire, S et al, 1978, Public & Private Morality, Cambridge
University Press.
Ø Harman, G, 1977, The Nature of Morality, Oxford University Press,
New York.
Ø Parekh, B; Berki, R.N, 1972, The Morality of Politics, George Allen
& Unwin Ltd, London.
Ø Geisler, N, 1998, Focus on the family, http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/features/a0003303.cfm Ø http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/14/newsid_2534000/2534615.stm
Ø http://histgeo.free.fr/troisieme/guerremondiale/Churchill.html
Ø www.dictionary.com
There are many causes of strokes and risk factors that can increase likelihood of stroke. Causes include conditions such as atherosclerosis, also known as plaque build...
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