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Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
ISBN: 978-1107-068-933
current price (paperback): $28.99 / €28.17 / £18.99
The central goal of this book, as stated in its preface, is "to rehabilitate an ethically grounded ideal of citizenship and public service, one that refuses to separate political endeavors from the quest for human excellence" (xi). Classical authors, such as Plato and Aristotle, viewed all domains of human action as expressive - at least, ideally - of the agent's commitment to live an excellent or worthy human life. Modern thinkers, such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Niebuhr, and Rawls have tended to insulate political action from citizens' ethical and/or religious ideals, in the name of liberty, public order, toleration, or public reason. Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life challenges this modern effort to quarantine political reasoning from fundamental ethical commitments and sets out instead to develop an "integrationist" vision of citizenship that permits citizens to give full play to their deepest ethical commitments in their role as citizens and public officials. At the heart of this book is the conviction that the insulation of public life from citizens' ethical commitments puts in jeopardy not only our integrity as persons but also the legitimacy and moral resilience of our political communities.
ISBN: 978-1107-068-933
current price (paperback): $28.99 / €28.17 / £18.99
- availability: sold on Amazon in hardback, paperback ($28.99), and Kindle ($23.37) formats
- excerpt: click here to view the full preface and table of contents
- reviews: Lauren K Hall, Perspectives in Politics 13, 4 (December 2015): 1145-1146; David Schumann, Ethical Theory & Moral Practice 19 (2016): 809-811; Richard Dagger, Review of Politics 78 (2016): 334-335: Teresa Pullano, Contemporary Political Theory 15 (28/6/2016); Iseult Honohan, Political Theory, published online October 10th 2016.
The central goal of this book, as stated in its preface, is "to rehabilitate an ethically grounded ideal of citizenship and public service, one that refuses to separate political endeavors from the quest for human excellence" (xi). Classical authors, such as Plato and Aristotle, viewed all domains of human action as expressive - at least, ideally - of the agent's commitment to live an excellent or worthy human life. Modern thinkers, such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Niebuhr, and Rawls have tended to insulate political action from citizens' ethical and/or religious ideals, in the name of liberty, public order, toleration, or public reason. Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life challenges this modern effort to quarantine political reasoning from fundamental ethical commitments and sets out instead to develop an "integrationist" vision of citizenship that permits citizens to give full play to their deepest ethical commitments in their role as citizens and public officials. At the heart of this book is the conviction that the insulation of public life from citizens' ethical commitments puts in jeopardy not only our integrity as persons but also the legitimacy and moral resilience of our political communities.
David Thunder makes an excellent case for the wholeness of citizenship, in which the best citizen and the best person come together. His analysis is useful whether one agrees or not and is stated so agreeably that all can admire its clarity and persuasiveness.
– Harvey C. Mansfield, Professor of Government, Harvard University; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
It is commonly held by political philosophers and theologians that the ethical principles that guide one in one’s attempt to live a worthy human life should not be decisive for what one does in one’s role as citizen; that role, so it is said, has its own distinct principles and source of principles. David Thunder makes the most detailed and powerful case anyone has yet made against this separationist thesis and in support of the opposing integrationist thesis: that we should give our deepest ethical commitments full play in what we do as citizens. Not only does personal ethical integrity require it; liberal democracy is in danger if citizens wall off the role of citizen from the norms and values that make for a worthy human life. Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life is the ‘against the grain’ book that those of us who do not buy the separationist thesis have long been looking for.
– Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University
In recent years the admissibility of particular moral and religious beliefs in public life has been widely debated by liberal political theorists, but asking whether the public life of a citizen is compatible with a moral life brings a fresh perspective to a range of issues that have concerned political theorists and philosophers.
– Iseult Honohan, Senior Lecturer, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, Ireland.
Thunder’s contributions to our understanding of ethical integrity are original, and his critique of perhaps the dominant standpoint in political science make this book important reading for anyone, theorist or otherwise, who cares about how political life impacts the character of those who engage in it.
– Laurence K. Hall, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
David Thunder’s book is a fascinating analysis of the ethics of citizenship under conditions of contemporary constitutional democracy. The essay can be easily read as a classical treatise on ethics and virtue in the polis, and that is probably the reason for the specific style that characterizes it, so different from the usual tone of most contemporary social science and political theory books: there is no jargon, no unnecessary difficult passages, but flawless and always clear writing.
– Teresa Pullano, Assistant Professor of European Global Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.
EDITED VOLUME:
EDITED VOLUME:
- The Ethics of Citizenship in the 21st Century. Editor & Contributor. Springer, 2017. ISBN 978-3319504148. Click here to view the preface and table of contents. Click here for a draft of a sample chapter. Click here for an interview on the book on the website of the Social Trends Institute.
TRANSLATION:
God and the Natural Law: A Rereading of Thomas Aquinas by Fulvio Di Blasi (translated from Italian into English). St. Augustine Press, 2006.
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
- “Moral Parochialism and the Limits of Impartiality.” The Heythrop Journal, vol. 61 (2020), pp. 24-34. Click here for published version.
- “Can a Good Person Be a Good Trader? An Ethical Defense of Financial Trading." Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 159, no. 1 (Sep 2019). Co-authored with Marta Rocchi. OPEN ACCESS.
- “The Public Role of Humanities Scholarship, in the Humboldtian Tradition." University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 85, no. 4 (Fall 2016), pp. 46-66. Click here for published version.
- "Rethinking the Ethics of Giving: The Normative and Motivational Inadequacy of Resource Management Approaches to Beneficence." Journal of Social Philosophy, vol. 46, no. 3 (Fall 2015), pp. 297-317. Click here for published version.
- "Why Respect for Freedom Cannot Explain the Content and Grounds of Human Rights: A Response to Valentini." Political Theory, vol. 42, n. 4 (August 2014), pp. 490-497. Click here for published version.
- “Am I My Brother’s Keeper? Grounding and Motivating an Ethos of Social Responsibility in a Free Society.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, vol. 12, no. 4 (December 2009), pp. 559-580. Click here for published version.
- “Why Value Pluralism Does Not Support the State’s Enforcement of Liberal Autonomy: A Response to Crowder.” Political Theory, vol. 37, no. 1 (February 2009), pp. 154-160. Click here for the published version of my article and here for online access to Crowder's reply.
- “A Rawlsian Argument Against the Duty of Civility.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 50, no. 3 (July 2006), pp. 676-690. Click here for full pdf. Click here for AJPS link.
- “Can a Good Person be a Lawyer?” Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, vol. 20, no. 1 (2006), pp. 313-334. Available online here.
- “Are Traditional Catholics Defective Citizens?” Josephinum Journal of Theology, vol. 16, no. 2 (2009), pp. 379-393. For a list of other essays in this volume, click here.
BOOK CHAPTERS:
- “The Neighbourhood as a Pivotal Element of the Infrastructure of a Flourishing Society.” In Happiness and Domestic Life: The Influence of the Home on Subjective and Social Wellbeing (New York: Routledge, 2022). With Ana Cecilia Serrano-Núñez. OPEN ACCESS.
- “Overcoming the Myth of the Sovereign, Self-Governing People.” In Dynamics of Authority in Citizenship and Political Community, ed. Trevor Stack & Rose Luminiello. (London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2022). pp. 125-146.
- “From Polis to Metropolis: On the Limits of Classical Approaches to Governance in a Fragmented Social Landscape.” In Disciplines of the City, ed. Julia Urabayen (Nova Science Publishers, 2019). Click here for order information. OPEN ACCESS.
- “The Place of Conscience-Based Exemptions in the Struggle Against Injustice.” In Contemporary Challenges to Conscience: Legal & Ethical Frameworks for Professional Conduct, ed. Alexander Stepkowski (Peter Lang, 2019). Click here for order information.
- “What is the Use of an Ethical Theory of Citizenship?” In The Ethics of Citizenship in the 21st Century, ed. David Thunder. Springer, 2017, pp. 3-12. Click here for the full volume. OPEN ACCESS.
- “An Ethical Defense of Citizenship.” In The Ethics of Citizenship in the 21st Century, ed. David Thunder. Springer, 2017, pp. 85-104. Click here for the full volume. OPEN ACCESS.
- “Managing the Social and Moral Costs of a Culture of Choice.” In Margaret S. Archer sobre Cultura y Socialización en la Modernidad Tardía [Margaret S. Archer on Culture and Socialization in Late Modernity]. Eunsa, 2015.
- “Public Reason and Abortion Revisited.” In Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments, ed. Stephen Napier. Springer, 2011, pp. 239-254. Click here for the full volume.
- “Can the Political Priority of Liberty be Squared with the Ethical Priority of Flourishing?” In Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty. Lexington Books, 2008, pp. 27-39. Click here for the full volume.
- “Public Discourse Without God? Moral Disposition in Democratic Deliberation.” In Ethics Without God? The Divine in Contemporary Moral and Political Thought, ed. Fulvio Di Blasi, Joshua P. Hochschild, and Jeffrey Langan. St. Augustine Press, 2007, pp. 49-64. Click here for the full volume.
BOOK REVIEWS & ESSAYS:
- “Back to Basics: Twelve Rules for Writing a Publishable Article.” PS: Political Science and Politics, July 2004, pp. 493-495. Click here for published version.
- Review of Graham Long’s Relativism and the Foundations of Liberalism (2004) and Gerald Gaus’s Contemporary Theories of Liberalism (2003). The Review of Politics, vol. 67, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 775-778. Available online here.
- "The Flattening of Time": Review of Modern Social Imaginaries (Duke University Press, 2004) by Charles Taylor. The Review of Politics, vol. 66, no. 3 (Summer 2004): 145-147. Available online here.
- Review Essay: Love and Friendship: Rethinking Politics and Affection in Modern Times (Lexington Books, 2003) by Eduardo Velásquez. Interpretation, vol. 35, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 95-101. Available online here.
- “The Limits of Finnis’s Nontheistic Account of Human Dignity and Rights: A Review of John Finnis, Human Rights and Common Good.” Jurisprudence, vol. 3, no. 1 (June 2012): 267-276. Click here for published version.
- Review of Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing by Archer M. Melzer (Chicago University Press, 2014). Perspectives in Politics, vol. 13, no. 3 (September 2015): 847-848.
- Review of George Rupp's Beyond Individualism: The Challenge of Inclusive Communities (2015). The Review of Politics, vol. 78, no 3 (Summer 2016): 491-493.
- Review of Ralph Ketcham, Public-Spirited Citizenship: Leadership and Good Government in the United States (2015). American Political Thought, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 330-333.
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION:
Rethinking Modern Citizenship: Towards a Politics of Integrity and Virtue (submitted in April 2006)
There is a malaise at large in our modern liberal democracies arising from the failure of our public life to be grounded in, and in turn inspire, our deepest moral questions and our ceaseless quest for ethical integrity or wholeness. Many current ideals of citizenship expressly or implicitly require citizens to subordinate their most cherished ethical commitments to the norms of liberal citizenship. Critics have pointed out that this amounts to a deeply problematic bifurcation of the moral life. However, they have failed to develop an alternative vision of citizenship that both accommodates integrity and responds to the challenges of a modern pluralistic polity, such as toleration and political stability. This is the principal task I set myself here, drawing on the strengths of Aristotle’s account of the virtues but also affirming the values of a broadly liberal regime. Click here for the full text.
There is a malaise at large in our modern liberal democracies arising from the failure of our public life to be grounded in, and in turn inspire, our deepest moral questions and our ceaseless quest for ethical integrity or wholeness. Many current ideals of citizenship expressly or implicitly require citizens to subordinate their most cherished ethical commitments to the norms of liberal citizenship. Critics have pointed out that this amounts to a deeply problematic bifurcation of the moral life. However, they have failed to develop an alternative vision of citizenship that both accommodates integrity and responds to the challenges of a modern pluralistic polity, such as toleration and political stability. This is the principal task I set myself here, drawing on the strengths of Aristotle’s account of the virtues but also affirming the values of a broadly liberal regime. Click here for the full text.
IN PROGRESS:
Book Project:
Political Order After the Sovereign State
Most modern political scientists and theorists underestimate the intimate dependence of human freedom on the complex organization and culture of a wide range of intersecting, parallel, and nested social groups. It is this theoretical blindspot, I argue, driven by a reductively individualist social ontology, that leads a wide range of modern political thinkers to view the State, rather than social groups, as the primary guarantor of social order and freedom. I reject this sovereigntist approach to political authority and the individualistic social ontology underlying it, and make the case that free and flourishing communities can only be given room to develop to their full potential under a polycentric, non-sovereigntist framework of governance and civil order.
Most modern political scientists and theorists underestimate the intimate dependence of human freedom on the complex organization and culture of a wide range of intersecting, parallel, and nested social groups. It is this theoretical blindspot, I argue, driven by a reductively individualist social ontology, that leads a wide range of modern political thinkers to view the State, rather than social groups, as the primary guarantor of social order and freedom. I reject this sovereigntist approach to political authority and the individualistic social ontology underlying it, and make the case that free and flourishing communities can only be given room to develop to their full potential under a polycentric, non-sovereigntist framework of governance and civil order.
