Back to results

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Concept of Virtue: The Influence of European Ethics, Metaphysics, and Theology on American Ideas of Virtue, 1670-1770

Abstract

dc:description

Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, two conflicting theories of virtue were present in British thought. One theory, supported by Calvinist theology, maintained that virtue was a standard arbitrarily created by God and revealed in nature and Scripture to distinguish the behavior of the man guided by sovereign grace from the behavior of those moved by self-interest to attain merely dutiful, ethical, or "moral" obedience to civil or natural law. The other concept of the nature of virtue was grounded in the proposition that a good and wise God conformed to an enternal and objective (or "real") standard of virtue and that he revealed this standard in order to demonstrate his moral perfection and inspire men to make use of reasons, revelation, or grace to overcome the sinfulness that inhibited virtue.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
History
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Boughton, Lynne Courter

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
(UMI)AAI8218437
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70481

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Boughton, Lynne Courter. The Concept of Virtue: The Influence of European Ethics, Metaphysics, and Theology on American Ideas of Virtue, 1670-1770. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/70481