Paradoxes of political ethics /

Parrish (Loyola Marymount Univ.) presents a thoughtful rethinking of pre-Kantian and pre-utilitarian Western political thought through the problem of dirty hands. "Dirty hands" refers to the moral dilemma that public figures face when their public responsibilities conflict with private moral principles. Through a creative reading of a number of the great thinkers--Plato, Cicero, Augustine, and Adam Smith--Parrish explains how alternative solutions to this dilemma were devised and the problems that these solutions presented to later thinkers. The discussion of the ancients through Machiavelli is highly suggestive, revealing how important the problem of dirty hands is to their larger view of politics. Parrish is less successful in his treatment of Mandeville and Smith who, he argues, democratize the problem and render it invisible. Surprisingly, there is little historical or biographical context provided to supplement the sophisticated philosophical analysis of what is at heart a practical problem facing people in the political world. Nevertheless, this is an important attempt to show the vitality of political and moral reasoning prior to the Kantian and utilitarian revolutions. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through research collections. E. J. Harpham University of Texas at Dallas