Private Vice and Public Virtue?

Rocco D’Ambrosca: 09/12/2009

Since the dawn of moral thought and study, man has made lists and rules. Whether of religious nature or simply moral philosophy, lists have been made of the positive and negative traits and characteristics attributed to human nature. From Moses and the Ten Commandments to the Catholic Church’s Seven Deadly Sins, lists of this nature have changed and evolved over time. At the time of the Enlightenment, the thinkers of the age presented a different view of morality. They saw the morality of vices and virtues not in a universal sense, but circumstantial. The Enlightenment figures correctly argued that the private self motivated vices of the individual would lead to the public virtue of a prosperous economic outcome for the common good of all.

According to Thomas Paine, “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” (Paine 1). This standpoint echoes the views of the other American founders and to that end, the rest of the enlightenment figures. Their absolute guiding principle was freedom; and that with freedom, all men would be able to reach far greater heights than when constrained in oppressive governments. Paine asserts that when the first men gathered together in a state of natural liberty, they soon realized that, “the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in turn requires the same” (Paine 2). It is from this universal truth that society was formed. But with so many people gathered together, and the resulting accumulation of private wealth and interest, order was needed to create and sustain the mutual security of the many from the wicked.

The order that was established, founded government in society. Government stands in existence to protect three of the most important rights: the right to property, life, and liberty. A government exists as a parent to stand guard for each child, so that their siblings don’t take their property, life, or freedom. The government must stand guard as an impartial judge to maintain these essential freedoms. However, a government at its core must only do these things. Like a good parent, a government should give each individual the right to pursue their own happiness, vocation, or otherwise; as long as it is not at the abuse of another’s property, life, or liberty. A government should conversely never develop a self interest of its own; but only oversee the honest protection of its people from each other or from outside invaders. A government also can never through any form of legislation, impose any moral or philosophical theology upon the people. The government must stand back like a good mother bird and allow its baby birds to fly on their own; even if it means that they sometimes take a fall. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, and to assume among powers of the earth the equal and independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s god entitle them” (Jefferson 1).

It is now that we come to the issue at hand, the private vices of each citizen contributing to the common good of all. Following the definition of acceptable government defined so far, and the necessary limits of such, the only economy that can exist in a proper society is a free market. “The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour” (Smith I.1.1). The division of labor that Smith speaks of was born of a free society and can only thrive and achieve its ultimate destiny within a free society; and in this case a free market. A free market allows each individual to make his own destiny and choose his own vocation based solely upon his own self interest. “This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many” (Smith I.1.5).

In this environment, the normally accepted moralities of the religions do not apply. The Catholic Church’s Seven Deadly Sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride, almost completely work against this mutually beneficial system. All but sloth and wrath can be thrown out as useless vices. The private vice of sloth would only slow the progress towards a mutual common good; while wrath would only serve as an outward act of anger and hatred to cause suffering upon others, retarding their progress and worse undoing progress towards a mutual common good. It is of note that both of these vices, are in almost all cases, not necessarily associated with selfishness or self-interest, and thus stay true to the belief that the vices associated with self interest and selfishness, are the only vices useful in furthering the common good in a free market society.

The remaining vices, when used properly, serve to motivate each man to achieve his own self interests and in turn serve the common good. “It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people” (Smith I.1.10). The vices of want including lust and envy serve as motivation in a very direct way. The business owner or worker within a business when tempted with the lust of a woman or the envy of the property or status of another, forces himself to do better in the pursuit of satisfying and attaining these wants. In the modern day suppose you want to date a beautiful woman and at the same time you want to buy the same Corvette your neighbor just bought. The normal vices of lust and envy may motivate you to ace all your exams in high school, so that you may do the same in college, so that you may work equally hard in the work force in the hopes of attaining and satisfying both of these “sinful” desires.

The remaining vices of gluttony, greed, and pride serve the average worker but will serve the business owner even better. A humble craftsman, tailor, or farmer will take pride in his work and product, be greedy in how much they profit, and gluttonous in how diverse their products can be in an attempt to service all. All of this serves to produce a better product, a more numerous product, and a greater product choice for the customer. “Every workman has a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantity of his goods for a great quantity, or what comes to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs. He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of the society” (Smith I.1.10). Thus, this universal servicing, of a citizens own self interests, motivated by their own personal private vices, create a driving circular system, that serves the needs and common good of all; a public virtue.