Civic Humanist

Welcome to the Civic Humanist

Some civic humanist commentary on the state of the American polity and culture.

See the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry by Athanasios Moulakis for a brief introduction to civic humanism.

"Civic humanism is generally taken as an equivalent or as a particular variant of republicanism, meaning a conception of politics in which government is in principle the common business of the citizens. The city provides the environment -- a public space -- for human fulfillment. If, on the one hand, the republic is contrasted to personal or authoritarian government it also differs from the liberal model in which the constitution provides a formal frame that embraces citizens of diverse moral character and with varied individual pursuits. The republic rests rather on the virtues of its citizens and is oriented toward the common good. The virtues of citizenship are in turn developed and enhanced by being exercised in upholding republican political and legal institutions and making them work by being involved in their operation. Republican life is then thought to be formative of the public spirit on which it rests. Republican freedom depends on constant civic activity. The polity is taken to cohere by means of the common acceptance of standards of justice that are more than procedural rules. The purpose of the commonwealth is not so much peace and ensuring the rights of individuals, as the realization of human potentiality, which is taken to be essentially political. The republic is the necessary medium of self-realization, not merely the condition of possibility of private endeavors. Indeed, a certain amount of conflict, properly contained, adds to the liveliness and vigor of the republic. There is a link furthermore between the freedom of the citizen and the independence of the republic. Citizen armies and the right to bear arms are therefore common postulates of republican theory.

"Civic humanism is linked in principle to a classical educational program that goes beyond the formative capacity of participatory citizenship itself and involves the conscious revival of ancient ideals. How true this is of the educational practice of late Atlantic epigones of the republican tradition is a different matter. Republican candor, simplicity of manner, opposition to ostentation, luxury and lucre, are common, though not universal republican themes. Some theorists also dwell on the millenarian aspirations associated with republican ideals responding to the fragility of the republic and the need to provide against its corruption and decay with the passage of time."

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humanism-civic/

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