| | Mike Erickson, virtues do not have to be mutually exclusive. I highly recommend Diedre McCloskey's essay on Bourgeois Virtues in which she contrasts the aristocrat (Achilles), the peasant (St. Francis), and the merchant (Ben Franklin). You can find much more about this online, including, I believe, a Reason Online article.
_Aristocrat_ _Peasant_ _Bourgeois_
pride of being pride of service pride of action
honor duty integrity
loyalty solidarity trustworthiness
courage fortitude enterprise
Cop virtues are Aristocratic. Integrity is important, of course. As I said, these are not exclusive. However, for the cop that is expressed as Honor.
I recommend also some of the writing of Jane Jacobs who as been cited here.
Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival
Systems of Survival: Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics moves outside of the city, studying the moral underpinnings of work.
... they fit two patterns of moral behaviour that were mutually exclusive. She calls these two patterns "Moral Syndrome A", or commercial moral syndrome and "Moral Syndrome B" or guardian moral syndrome. She claims that the commercial moral syndrome is applicable to business owners, scientists, farmers, and traders. Similarly, she claims that the guardian moral syndrome is applicable to government, charities, hunter-gatherers, and religious institutions. She also claims that these Moral Syndromes are fixed, and do not fluctuate over time.
It is important to stress that Jane Jacobs is providing a theory about the morality of work, and not all moral ideas. Moral ideas that are not included in her syndrome are applicable to both syndromes.
Jane Jacobs goes on to describe what happens when these two moral syndromes are mixed, showing the work underpinnings of the Mafia and communism, and what happens when New York Subway Police are paid bonuses here - reinterpreted slightly as a part of the larger analysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs
Books in Review Systems of Survival
Copyright (c) 1997 First Things 38 (December 1993): 50-53.
Traders and Raiders
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics. By Jane Jacobs. Random House. 236 pp. $22.
Reviewed by Mary Ann Glendon
Jacobs makes a surprising claim—one that has been misunderstood by some reviewers. She contends that human beings have developed two and only two basic "systems of survival": a "commercial syndrome" and a "guardian syndrome." Each of these survival strategies has arisen and persisted, she argues, because it promotes material success in the way of life with which it is associated.
Like the other animals, we find and pick up what we can use, and appropriate territories. But unlike the other animals, we also trade and produce for trade. Because we possess these two radically different ways of dealing with our needs, we also have two radically different systems of morals and values—both systems valid and necessary.
The "commercial syndrome" has its principal home among peoples who trade or produce for trade (though it is not coextensive with, or limited to, the world of business). The linchpin of the commercial syndrome is honesty, for the very good reason that trading systems don’t work without a good deal of trust, even among strangers. Because traders’ prosperity depends on making reliable deals, they set great store by policies that tend to create or reinforce honesty and trust: respect contracts; come to voluntary agreements; shun force; be tolerant and courteous; collaborate easily with strangers. Because producers for trade thrive on improved products and methods they also value inventiveness, and attitudes that foster creativity, such as "dissent for the sake of the task."
"Guardians" are modern versions of the raiders, warriors, and hunters who once made their livings through sorties into unknown or hostile territories. Today’s guardians (usually more concerned with administering or protecting territories than acquiring them) are found in governmental ministries and bureaucracies, legislatures, the armed forces, the police, business cartels, intelligence agencies, and many religious organizations. Guardians prize such qualities as discipline, obedience, prowess, respect for tradition and hierarchy, show of strength, ostentation, largesse, and "deception for the sake of the task." The bedrock of guardian systems is loyalty. It not only promotes their common objectives, but it keeps them from preying on one another. They are wary of, even hostile to, trade, for the reason that loyalty and secrets of the group must not be for sale.
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9312/reviews/glendon.html
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