Vice Cannot Build Virtue

Aristotle and Machiavelli cannot inhabit the same soul. Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images). Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. Are there two different moralities for public and private life? For centuries, the mainstream answer in the Western tradition was no. For Aristotle, the Stoics, Cicero, Boethius, and the Scholastics, it was natural to think that those who held authority in a political community should have exceptional virtue. Nathan Beacom writes from Des Moines, Iowa. He is the founder of The Lyceum Movement, a nonprofit dedicated to building better public conversations through exploring first principles, and the author of The Way of Shang-di Substack. More Monday Essays