Hypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Ethics of Politics

by Ruth W. Grant

Overview

Questioning the usual judgements of political ethics, Ruth W. Grant argues that hypocrisy can actually be constructive while strictly principled behavior can be destructive. Hypocrisy and Integrity offers a new conceptual framework that clarifies the differences between idealism and fanaticism while it uncovers the moral limits of compromise.

"Exciting and provocative. . . . Grant's work is to be highly recommended, offering a fresh reading of Rousseau and Machiavelli as well as presenting a penetrating analysis of hypocrisy and integrity."—Ronald J. Terchek, American Political Science Review

"A great refreshment. . . . With liberalism's best interests at heart, Grant seeks to make available a better understanding of the limits of reason in politics."—Peter Berkowitz, New Republic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226305929
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	04/15/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	209
Lexile:	1350L (what's this?)
File size:	432 KB

About the Author

Ruth W. Grant is professor of political science and philosophy and senior fellow in the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. She is the author of John Locke’s Liberalism and Hypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau and the Ethics of Politics, the latter of which received the best book award from the North American Society for Political Philosophy in 1997. She is also the editor of Naming Evil, Judging Evil and In Search of Goodness.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Ch. 1: Introduction
Ch. 2: Machiavelli and the Case for Hypocrisy
Ch. 3: Moliere, Rousseau, and the Ideal of Integrity
Ch. 4: Rousseau's Political Ethics: Integrity, Prudence, and Deception
Ch. 5: Rousseau's Political Ethics: Corruption, Dependence, and Vanity
Ch. 6: Conclusion
Works cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jean Bethke Elshtain

A lucid, elegantly written defense of the possibility that hypocrisy is not only the tribute that vice pays to virtue but may itself be virtuous by contrast to other alternatives, including hewing to hard and fast principles in such a way that political disaster results. Bound to promote debate about what counts as an authentically political ethic. -- Author of Democracy on Trial

Editorial Reviews

Ruth Grant has written an exciting and provocative work reassessing the role of hypocracy and integrity in politics.
— American Political Science Review

Ronald J. Terchek