ABSTRACT
The burden of my claims here is that virtue in the publ ic life is less likely to be found in a clearer understand ing of vi rtue and more likely to be found in a clearer understanding of the public life. With a clearer understanding of the public life. I shall further claim, virtue is to be found not so much in the abstractions and theorizing of higher philosophy but in "vu lgar eth ics." Lewis C. Main zcr's ( 199 1) brilliant description of moral education in the classroom and street-l evel moral practice in the department and the agency. Finally, I shall claim that the hope o f virtue in the public life is to be found notjusl in the individual propensity to be ethical but morc so in the development of organ izational rules and procedures, in virtuous leadership, and i n the development of virtuous public cultures.
