ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that there are differences between patriotism and other familiar kinds of loyalty, and that they are of ethical consequence. The deep source of patriotic bad faith, lies in the tension between patriotism's demanding certain sorts of beliefs and its failing to be grounded in or dependent upon those beliefs. There is a conception of patriotism according to which it necessarily involves the belief that your country is, objectively, the best, or has features that make it superior to all others. The chapter shows that the link between patriotism and bad faith yields a clear presumptive case against patriotism's being a virtue, and for its being a vice. It suggests empirical predictions, like the prediction that patriotic people will be especially resistant to evidence that places their home countries in a poor light. Patriotism is by its nature such as to make the patriot likely to have the disposition to fall into bad faith.
