Tempered Strength: Studies in the Nature and Scope of Prudential Leadership

Moral leadership matters. As world politics enters a new and dangerous era, judgement, constancy, moral purpose, and a willingness to overcome partisan politicking are essential for America’s leaders. This study finds the alternative standard of leadership that Americans are seeking in the classical philosophy of prudence. Ethan Fishman brings together American political scientists such as Ronald Beiner, Kenneth L. Deutsch and George Anastaplo to discuss the evolution of a standard of prudential leadership both reasonable in nature and practical in scope. Section One explores the meaning of prudence and its evolution in the history of political science from Aristotelian phronesis to Xenophon, Thomas Aquinas, Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott. Section Two demonstrates how the theory of prudential leadership can be applied to practical political issues.