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Virtue and the Law: Classical Perspectives

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Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management

Part of the book series: International Handbooks in Business Ethics ((IHBE))

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Abstract

Classical thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, and Machiavelli developed a perspective that insisted that a primary function of law was to nurture the souls of citizens. Although these thinkers disagree somewhat as to what the primary virtues citizens should embody, they joined cause in their conviction that law should not be neutral on the matter of the best notion of the good. This chapter analyzes the development of the classical perspective of virtue and the law, speculates as to the changes adopting such a perspective would have on contemporary jurisprudence, and sketches some of the reasons why such changes may not seem salutary to contemporary thinkers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State University of New York at Fredonia, 280 Central Ave., Fredonia, NY, 14063, USA

    Raymond Angelo Belliotti

Authors
  1. Raymond Angelo Belliotti
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Correspondence to Raymond Angelo Belliotti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Alejo José G. Sison

  2. Department of Philosophy, Saint Louis University , St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Gregory R. Beabout

  3. School of Economics and Business Administration, Business Department, University of Navarra, Pamploma, Spain

    Ignacio Ferrero

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Belliotti, R.A. (2017). Virtue and the Law: Classical Perspectives. In: Sison, A., Beabout, G., Ferrero, I. (eds) Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management. International Handbooks in Business Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6510-8_42

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