Ambition seems to us desirable and dangerous. We’re egalitarians in many respects, but we also want to achieve greatness. We want to be superior to others, but only in the right ways. We strive to be great so that our greatness will make the world a better place. But we also recognize the ways in which ambition is dangerous to our society, and perhaps to our own happiness. Can we really be great for the greater good?

In this session, we will look at modern attempts to channel ambition for the sake of political flourishing, such as Alexander Hamilton’s argument in Federalist 51. We will also discuss Alexis de Tocqueville’s analysis of ambition in America and how democracy changes the age-old thirst for honor.

On Monday, October 27 at 6 PM, join Nathaniel Peters (Morningside) for a seminar series on how our views on ambition have changed from antiquity through the early days of the American Republic, up to our own time. We read from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Part 2, Book 3, Chs. 18–21.