The advantage of patriotism shifts from an indoctrinated feeling of exaltation for the nation, no matter its actions and motives, to a necessity to look at the nation’s principles and practices to see whether or not those practices are in harmony with these ideas. We train the first by way of pledges, salutes, and oaths; we train the second by way of critical inquiry. To Thomas Lickona a advantage is “a reliable inside disposition to respond to conditions in a morally great way” (p. fifty one); “good character,” he continues, “consists of understanding the nice, wanting the great, and doing the good” .
Yet on the very next page ofEmile Rousseau raises the query of whether or not a person who stays true to himself, to his nature, and is all the time decisive in his choices “is a person or a citizen, or how he goes about being both at the same time” . Rousseau himself appears ambivalent on precisely whether or not men can overcome social corruption. Society is predicated on non-public property; non-public property brings inequality, as some personal greater than others; such inequality brings forth social comparisons with others , which in turn can produce envy, …
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