Front and Center Newsletter – Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2024

In his excellent book Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, Albert Jay Nock discusses in part his impatience with what he calls “social legislation” aimed at improving society presumably by improving human beings through the force of law. In an interesting discussion of a long-time friend who had been active in the effort to compel human beings to improve, Nock reports the following: “In a conversation with me not many months ago, this friend said mournfully, ‘My experience has cured me of one thing. I am cured of believing that society can ever be improved through political action. After this, I shall cultivate my garden.’ “[i] Nock responds to his friend’s statement saying: “To my mind, those few concluding words sum up the whole social responsibility of man. The only thing that the physically-human being can do to improve society is to present society with one improved unit. In a word, ages of experience testify that the only way society can be improved is by the individualist method… that is, the method of each one doing his very best to improve one.”[ii]

Nock’s statement here captures well the Marine leadership principle of setting the example for others. Yet Nock’s statement can be understood as urging each of us to be the example. Carolina Museum of the Marine is located in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and here, in North Carolina, our state motto is Esse Quam Videri: “To be, rather than to seem.” We will consider the present principle of Marine Corps leadership from this perspective. Reading about the principle “set the example” we find that “it might be one of the most crucial (and subtle) aspects of a good leader.” We’re familiar with the observation that people can say anything, and many do, but if we want to know someone’s intent, look at what he does. So, leading by example is a form of communication without words, and this explains its subtlety (and suggests a difficulty presented by people among us who are insufficiently attuned to subtlety to understand this form of communication).

By Marmaduke Percy – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10499814

“Leaders who lead by example usually start good habits because they serve as a quality example of how to act and respond.” This is an interesting assertion because it identifies the importance of good habits, and implies that when people see good habits displayed by others, many want to imitate them, and develop them. In the history of moral philosophy, the concept of habit is important because habits are how we distinguish virtues from vices, and this helps us to see clearly the notion of leading by example not so much as a technique, though this is needed at times, but as a consequence of the kind of person a leader is. A well-developed person will lead by example as a function of being a well-developed person. There are moral habits because we have the power of free choice, and there are intellectual habits because we have minds. Moral and intellectual habits work together through the virtue of prudence. A well-known study of this describes the relation of moral to intellectual virtues this way. “Good operative habits are called by Aquinas [d. 1274 A.D.] ‘virtues’ and bad operative habits ‘vices.’ But he was not content with this distinction, and he followed Aristotle in distinguishing between the moral virtues which incline a man’s sensitive appetite to act in accordance with right reason, and the intellectual virtues, which perfect a man’s rational powers.”[iii] So we see here the important distinction between moral and intellectual virtues, and then our author shows how they relate one to another. “But it is not possible to have the moral virtues without the intellectual virtue of ‘prudence’ which inclines us to choose the right means to the attainment of the objective good or to have prudence without the moral virtues. We cannot therefore dissociate altogether the moral from the intellectual virtues.”[iv]

We may think of virtues, then, as “good operative habits,” and in thinking of it this way, it is clear that there are many good operative habits. In the intellectual tradition of “virtue ethics” there are four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, prudence, and justice. These, however, are only the primary habits from which the others get their definitions. It is a function of justice, for example, to develop thegood operative habits of honor and commitment, because these have directly to do with how we interact with others. The good operative habit of commitment, in turn, requires us to tell the truth, be honest, and keep promises. Moreover, acting according to good operative habits makes one’s life pleasurable and orderly, which are important elements of the inner peace that makes one happy.

“For he [Aquinas] was convinced that we need virtuous habits on three counts,…namely that we may be able to act uniformly, readily, and pleasurably in accordance with right reason. Man perfects himself and develops towards the attainment of the objective good in and through activity; and habits are one of the most important influential factors in activity.”[v]

So, leaders who set the example for others do so most effectively when the example they set comes from within, from possession of good operative habits. We read also that such leaders inspire in others the desire to improve, to acquire the good operative habits of the leader, and in this way, the entire team may become better both at their mission, and also as individual persons, thus embracing Albert Jay Nock’s conception of an individual’s responsibility to society, which is to present it with one improved unit. Read More…