Comments on: For Love Of Country

By: Daniel Larison

Daniel Larison — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:20:44 +0000

I agree that the remark about Aristotle was mistaken. The important part of the quote, or the part that I wanted to respond to, was the claim that there are some countries that do not “deserve” to be loved. The whole passage has problems. I thought the bit about Aristotle was not worth commenting on because it was so irrelevant.

By: brendon

brendon — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:56:25 +0000

His comment on Aristotle do not seem all that relevant. What we call ‘patriotism’ is simply a part of what many of the ancients and the medievals called ‘piety’. One can certainly find references to this concept–if not the word itself–in the works of Cicero, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. And probably any number of other sources that I cannot reference off the top of my head. The point being that love of family, country and those who are friends of your country is certainly seen as virtuous by any number of ancient and medieval authorities.

By: Eunomia » Countries, Nation-States And Regimes

Eunomia » Countries, Nation-States And Regimes — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:05:04 +0000

[...] Ross makes an important point in his post on the Cato patriotism debate that I have joined without an invitation: The only complicating factor occurs in a case like the United States, where the character of the regime and the character of the people are bound together so tightly that it’s hard to imagine one without the other. The government-country distinction is easier to make in countries where regimes change willy-nilly, and while obviously our regime isn’t identical to the one founded in 1789, our democratic temper – both institutional and cultural – has endured through the transition from a decentralized republic to a mass democracy with a sizable administrative state. So whereas France would still be France if the current Republic were dissolved and a monarchy or a dictatorship took its place, there’s a sense in which imagining an America governed by an emperor or a military junta is a little like imagining a France whose inhabitants no longer speak French. [...]