PHIL 332: Discussion Questions on Burke and Tocqueville 1. Moral
Motivation and Virtue. Burke claims that only the gallows
provides motivation for abiding by laws in a rights-based
government. He claims there is nothing to replace "love,
veneration, admiration, or attachment" as aids to the law (i.e.,
to promote voluntary compliance with the law). He also claims
that democracy undermines virtue, which he illustrates with his
discussion of chivalric codes of honor. [Burke thinks that in a
democracy most people will be like Hobbes's fool. What is the
only source of motivation for Hobbes's fool?] How would
Tocqueville respond to him on these two questions—that is, on
the motivation to voluntarily comply with the law in a democracy
and on virtue in a democracy? 2. A Posteriori Rather Than A
Priori Reasoning in Political Philosophy. Although Burke and
Tocqueville reach different conclusions about democracy, their
ways of evaluating forms of government are surprisingly similar.
Both eschew a priori derivations of p