Civic Virtues and Ethical Virtues: A Hint from the Ethics of Caring

The tension between civic virtues and ethical virtues is an expression of " the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns” in modern political life. Liberalism and its critics came to a deadlock on this issue. Liberalism argues that civic virtues should be freestanding from ethical virtues in public life, with a firm belief in autonomy. While its critics argue that civic virtues should not be freestanding from ethical virtues, because the former is conceptually based on the latter, and the latter is the intellectual source for the former in practice. The difficulty for liberalism is that it is hard for people to put civic virtues into practice apart from ethical virtues, while the difficulty for liberalism’s critics lies in the justification of certain ethical virtues in a pluralistic world. By reviewing relevant discussions, this essay argues that there is a hint from the ethics of caring. A citizenship supported by the ethics of caring is stronger than the kind solely based on civic virtues, but weaker than the kind based on ethical virtues working as the foundation for the whole civic life.