Last week, thousands gathered outside the Supreme Court, waiting in line for nearly half a mile to pay their respects to Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In the hours after her passing, Democrats and Republicans hailed her public service and example.
Beyond the Beltway, a poll conducted a few days before Ginsburg’s death revealed that she was more widely known than Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and 44 percent of respondents gave her a favorable rating compared to 28 percent for Roberts.
How did Ginsburg become a cultural icon, her image reproduced on millions of T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags and socks? Americans typically have little knowledge about politics, and deep distrust of government institutions and leaders. As political theorists, we believe that the political philosophy of virtue ethics, stretching back to ancient Greece and embracing Chinese thinkers such as Confucius, helps explain why people admire Ginsburg’s personal attributes as much as her accomplishments.
Virtue ethics prizes human flourishing
Virtue ethics is a way to think about what we need to secure the good life — not simply happiness, but a life that involves a specific form of flourishing marked by extraordinary achievement in a range of intellectual, physical and moral activities. Think of Odysseus, the mythical hero who fought bravely in the Trojan war, outwitted a series of monsters and even overcame the wrath of the gods.
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The story of Odysseus is supposed to remind us that we need the right character to act well and flourish. We require virtues, not rigid rules, to help us navigate life’s particular challenges: the best way to conduct oneself at a party, at a funeral or when faced with danger. The Greek philosopher Aristotle explains that virtues help us do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
So what, exactly, are these keys to ideal behavior? Virtue ethicists identify such characteristics as courage, self-control, generosity, good temper, a capacity for friendship, compassion, dedication to justice — and what we would broadly call intelligence.
They argue that these traits are both desirable on their own and for what they can help us do — and they are especially admirable when they are all embodied in one person. Although a person can achieve excellence in a single virtue (as a star athlete or a violin virtuoso, for instance) a truly excellent and developed person exercises a great many if not all the virtues. Aristotle even had a special word for this: the megalopsychos, or the great-souled person.
This explains Ginsburg’s many admirers
Virtue ethics help us better understand Ginsburg’s appeal and the specific ways in which people honor her. Those who admire her point to her personal traits and achievements across a variety of domains. Her biographers cite her quick mind and “formidable intellect.” She was the first woman to become a member of the Harvard Law Review and graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor of the chamber, Ginsburg had a “brilliant legal mind” that was admired by millions of Americans who had never met her.
Beyond intellectual virtues, many admirers of the justice have pointed to her work ethic and courage in the face of ongoing illness. “On the Basis of Sex,” a film about Ginsburg’s life, chronicles her time as a law student when she juggled raising a toddler, attending classes and caring for her husband, Marty, who had just received a diagnosis of testicular cancer. Historian Jill Lepore describes Ginsburg as taking on “an almost inhuman schedule, often working through the night.” On the Supreme Court, Ginsburg issued her opinions almost a month quicker than her colleagues and was known to call her clerks at two or three in the morning.
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The rise in Ginsburg’s popularity seems associated with increased attention to her heralded physical fitness. Following colon cancer diagnoses and treatment, Ginsburg received regular workouts with a former Special Forces trainer. The Notorious RBG blog, which first linked the justice with a famous hip-hop artist and propelled her popular culture status, revealed how the justice outperformed some of her younger colleagues in her fitness and strength training regimen.
Again, these are not just biographical details, but form the building blocks of what people say they admire. As Shana Knizhnik, who founded the Notorious RBG blog, explained, people “are hungry for icons that have been doing the work of social justice for as long as she has.”
Another mourner in line outside the Supreme Court to pay her respects put it this way: “I was a homeless veteran for years. … I have struggled in my own life, and her achievements let me know that I actually might be able to achieve something in life.”
In these and other ways, today’s adulation of Ginsburg links back to an ancient model of virtue. This helps us understand that even in an age of distrust, many still long for public figures who purportedly embody the range of things humans can achieve and strive for.
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Bruce Peabody is a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and co-author, with Krista Jenkins, of “Where Have All the Heroes Gone? The Changing Nature of American Valor” (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is currently working on a book about the political theory of death.
John Schiemann is professor of government and law at Fairleigh Dickinson University and author of “Does Torture Work?” (Oxford University Press, 2016). His current book project is a critical survey of key questions surrounding torture.