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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES AND THE SEARCH FOR A POSTMODERN PRUDENCE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Sharon Lynne Bracci, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1994 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Josina M. Makau Mary M. Garrett Adviser Richard Shiels Department of Communication To my parents and children ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express my deep gratitude to Dr. Josina M. Makau for her guiding counsel and enthusiastic support throughout this research. My sincere appreciation and thanks are also extended to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs. Mary M. Garrett and Richard Shiels for their kind support and and thoughtful suggestions. To my children, Creighton and Katherine, I express my thanks for their willingness to assume additional burdens over the course of this research. VITA July 15, 1943......................................................................... Bom - Detroit, Michigan 1968 .........................................................................................B.A., Wayne State University, . Detroit, Michigan 1968-1977 .............................................................................. Commercial Loan Officer, National Bank of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan 1988.........................................................................................M.A., Rhetoric, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1992-Present ...........................................................................Lecturer, PhD Candidate, Department of Communication, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS Blinn, Sharon Bracci and Mary Garrett. “Aristotelian Topoi as a Cross-Cultural Analytical Tool,” Philosophy and Rhetoric, 26 (1993): 93-112. Blinn, Sharon Bracci. ‘Teaching Communication Ethics in the Undergraduate Argumentation and Debate Course.” Proceedings: 1992 National Communication Ethics Conference, Gull Lake, Michigan, June, 1992. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Communication Other Rhetorical theory and criticism Public moral argumentation Italian language study, Ohio State University Italian language program, Rome, Italy center of Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, Summer, 1990 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................... iii VITA........................................................................................................................................ iv CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 Introduction................................................................................................. 1 Rationale...................................................................................................... 6 Scope............................................................................................................ 14 Methodology ......................................................................................................24 II. FOUNDATIONS OF PRUDENCE.............................................................. 36 Aristotelian Phronesis....................................................................................... 36 Ciceronian Prudentia.........................................................................................49 Setting the contemporary stage for conservative deliberations. 55 HI. PRUDENCE AND HUMAN NATURE............................................................ 74 Conservative response to the post WWII context .................................. 74 Human nature.....................................................................................................80 Human plasticity................................................................................................81 Innate sociability and cultivated civility..........................................................83 Human capacity for good and evil.................................................................. 84 Christian insights into human nature..............................................................91 IV. THE PRUDENTIAL LESSONS OF HISTORY...............................................99 Historical wisdom........................................................................................... 100 Affinities between the historical method and the prudential method. 100 The normative meaning of history ........................................................... 102 The idea of progress ........................................................................................102 History as common moral sense................................................................... 104 Historical ironies in good intentions and unintended consequences. 106 Foundational documents - pragmatism and ideals...................................... 108 Historical models of h e ro is m ................................................................... 116 Institutional wisdom......................................................................................119 Religious institutions.....................................................................................124 Property .......................................................................................................... 126 The family as seat of practical intelligence .................................................. 127 Conservative commonplaces........................................................................ 132 V. COMMON MORAL VOCABULARY.............................................................141 John Stuart Mill and the language of classical liberalism.......................... 141 Rehearsing historic ambivalences toward the power of logos. 145 Shame, guilt, and coercion........................................................................... 150 Perceptions of imprudent value-neutral and therapeutic language. 153 Liberal tolerance as vice ................................................................................ 156 Imprudent compassion..................................................................................158 Finding a language of hope.......................................................................... 158 The virtue of patriotism.................................................................................163 The virtues of particular loyalties.................................................................166 The virtue of compromise.............................................................................167 Democratic virtues......................................................................................... 168 Models of virtuous power.............................................................................169 Democratic capitalism as embodiment of practical intelligence. 172 The vices of late capitalism ...................................................................... 174 VI. THE CONTOURS OF CONSERVATIVE DELIBERATIONS. 183 Nonrational aspects of conservative deliberations......................................183 Truth needs a champion ................................................................................ 188 Diversity..........................................................................................................191 Family wisdom as a model for public deliberations ..............................194 Democratic deliberations ............................................................................... 195 Historical lessons in elitism and populism..................................................198 Conservative ideals and the pragmatic needs of public discourse. 201 Prudential deliberations as deferential.........................................................202 Prudential