ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the second of two roles for good institutions in the virtues of character. It builds on the view that living well requires practical wisdom and shows how social institutions perform a formative role in allowing persons to develop practical wisdom in a political community. These are the institutions usually classified as “civil society,” e.g., the family, schools, businesses, religious or communal organizations, and so on, that function as “schools of virtue.” The chapter describes the formative role as requiring that political institutions balance their authority with the flourishing of the social institutions of civil society. It also discusses the relationship between virtue, habit, and law.
