Tempered Strength: Studies in the Nature and Scope of Prudential LeadershipEthan M. Fishman Moral leadership matters. As world politics enters a new and dangerous era, judgment, constancy, moral purpose, and a willingness to overcome partisan politicking are essential for America's leaders. Tempered Strength finds the alternative standard of leadership that Americans are seeking in the classical philosophy of prudence. Ethan Fishman's new work brings together leading American political scientists--including Ronald Beiner, Kenneth L. Deutsch, and George Anastaplo--to discuss the evolution of a standard of prudential leadership both reasonable in nature and practical in scope. Section One studies the meaning of prudence and its evolution in the history of political science from Aristotelian phronesis to Xenophon, Thomas Aquinas, Edmund Burke, and Michael Oakeshott. Section Two demonstrates how the theory of prudential leadership can be applied to practical political issues. |
Contents
Introduction What Is Prudential Leadership? | |
THE NATURE OF PRUDENCE | 11 |
Prudence in Xenophons Memorabilia and Cyropaedia | 13 |
Thomas Aquinas on Magnanimous and Prudent Statesmanship | 29 |
The Role of Prudence in Burkes Politics | 49 |
Bringing Prudence Back In Leadership Statecraft and Political Science | 67 |
A Postscript to Political Judgment | 81 |
THE SCOPE OF PRUDENCE | 97 |
Political Judgment in Dark Times Frederick Douglass and Slavery | 99 |
Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation A Model of Prudent Leadership | 121 |
Prudence Imprudence and the Puzzle of Bill Clinton | 147 |
Prudence and the Constitution On the Year 2000 Presidential Election Controversy | 177 |
Index | 215 |
219 | |
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