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Meritocracy
Moral realism is David Brooks’s term for the belief that human nature is both good and evil. This view of human nature contrasts with that of the moral romanticists who believe that human nature is inherently good and trustworthy. Since they hold that human beings have both weaknesses and strengths, moral realists do not trust themselves to the degree that moral romanticists tend to do. Rather, they are hard on themselves. They confront their weaknesses, believing that through self-sacrifice and service, they will become stronger. Moral realists adhere to objective moral principles, which means that they trust an external, objective order of good while distrusting their internal impulses. Despite their somewhat negative view of human nature, moral realists have the ability to build character whereas moral romanticists are less equipped to do so. Character is built through struggle and through gaining triumph over one’s weaknesses; moral realists are able to build character because they acknowledge their weaknesses and challenge themselves to overcome them.
Moral Realism Quotes in The Road to Character
The The Road to Character quotes below are all either spoken by Moral Realism or refer to Moral Realism. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: Self-Conquest
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Like the nation’s founders, [Eisenhower] built his politics on distrust of what people might do if they have unchecked power […] [He] felt in his bones that man is a problem to himself.
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Chapter 10: The Big Me
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The realists believed in cultivation, civilization, and artifice; the romanticists believed in nature, the individual, and sincerity.
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If you believe that the ultimate oracle is the True Self inside, then of course you become emotivist—you make moral judgements on the basis of feelings that burble up. Of course you become a relativist. One True Self has no basis to judge or argue with another True Self. Of course you become an individualist, since the ultimate arbiter is the authentic self within and not any community standard or external horizon of significance without.
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Moral Realism Term Timeline in The Road to Character
The timeline below shows where the term Moral Realism appears in The Road to Character. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Shift
Brooks says that the humble, moral realist understands that everyone is made of “crooked timber.” Given that everyone is flawed, character doesn’t...
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Chapter 10: The Big Me
...of the 1960s hippies. Brooks gives the true story: in biblical times, a tradition of moral realism taught that all humans are flawed. Moses and David, for instance, were biblical heroes with...
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In the 18th century, moral romanticism emerged which emphasized human beings’ inner goodness. While the moral realist s distrusted the self and trusted society, the moral romanticists distrusted society and trusted the...
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...in The Road to Character followed different roads to character. Even though they subscribed to moral realism , they approached it in different ways. They all had one similarity, however: they all...
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