Thesis advisor: Robert C. Bartlett / This thesis seeks to explain why Aristotle considers piety a necessary component of the best regime that he presents in book 7 of the Politics. It argues that Aristotle includes piety in the best regime because the pious belief in divine providence, that is, divine reward for virtuous human beings and punishment for vicious human beings, provides an essential justification for moral virtue that enables the best regime to habituate its citizens in the practice of moral virtue without compelling them to deny their natural longing for happiness. Only this pious conception of divine providence enables the citizens of the best regime to be happy as they cope with the demands of moral virtue and citizenship. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_108474 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Higgins, William |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0). |
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