The Virtue of Deliberation

• In Event: Listening, Sharing, Testimony, and Deliberation across Differences

Abstract

I argue that the key characteristic required of deliberative democratic citizens is not so much increased political knowledge or sophistication in reasoning. Rather the key trait to develop is something akin to what the ancients called sophrosyne, often translated as sound-mindedness. Sophrosyne is alone among the cardinal virtues in lacking a clear modern referent, and it has been relatively neglected in updated accounts of politics and the virtues. Yet, I argue that sophrosyne is the most needful virtue in the citizenry if a deliberative conception of democracy is to fulfill its purpose of allowing us to steer between technocratic elitism, vulgar populism, and an anomic politics-as-market. In “Charmides” Plato runs through four definitions of sophrosyne (quietness, modesty, minding one’s own business, and knowledge of what one knows and does not know) that, taken together, sketch a syndrome of deliberative habits that is remarkably tailored to ameliorating the main vulnerabilities of deliberative politics in an imperfect world. I provide a modernized, synthetic account of sophrosyne, demonstrate its relevance to various desiderata in democratic theory.

Author

• Michael Neblo, Ohio State University