(iPoster) A Stoic Approach to Polarization

• In Event: Poster Session: Foundations of Political Theory I

Abstract

Polarization in the United States subsists in the strong sentiments of animosity between partisans and the aversiveness to interacting with one’s “partisan others.” These intense feelings of hostility and the increasingly high degree of social separation along political lines are both facilitated by and contributory to significant misperceptions of the beliefs and attitudes of one’s others. These features of the American political landscape—animosity, aversion, and misperception—mutually reinforce each other, further driving partisans into their own homogeneous spheres where they take up a purely combative stance toward perceived outsiders. Such attitudes, behaviors, and judgments entrench partisans into their respective camps and makes the genuine engagement between them necessary to reduce polarization, and overcome its various anti-democratic problems, extremely difficult.

To analyze and address this problem, in this paper, I appeal to the ancient philosophy of Stoicism as it provides a useful theoretical framework for approaching this state of polarization, and in connection with this framework, suggests some practical methods that can promote and enable a more productive engagement between partisans. This framework is provided by Stoicism’s epistemological orientation to the world that I call its “theory of judgment.” For the Stoics, an individual’s interpretation of the world or experience of reality is entirely the product of their individually held judgments, which they may be more or less conscious of, and always lie within their power to change. With this framework in mind, the lack of engagement between partisans under polarization can be understood as an instance of the “self-fulfillment problem of judgment,” in the sense that the judgments partisans hold, they respond reactively to in their behaviors and attitudes that, consequently, cement these polarized political conditions in place. However, many of the judgments held by partisans that sustain these conditions are misperceptions, and many of their behaviors may be the product of judgments they possess only subconsciously. The theory of judgment, in orienting individuals to the critical importance of judgment for how reality “shows up” to them and how they, in turn, show up in it, encourages individuals to scrutinize their judgments, and to seek out and reevaluate the subconscious judgments that may be contributing to polarization-sustaining behaviors. This reevaluation of judgment serves to provide individuals with a different relation to reality that can motivate their engagement with differing partisans.

The theory of judgment underlies a further concept that, I argue, can additionally enable a more productive engagement between partisans. This concept is “Stoic detachment.” At its core, the idea is that one can detach their mind from its immersion in lived experience in order to better subject the judgments that mediate this experience to evaluation. This is about a capacity to distance one’s mind from influences that can distort one’s judgment and/or contribute to disabling an open-minded, reciprocal, and, overall, productive political engagement. In elucidating this concept as a practical tool for interpartisan engagement I apply it to two concrete kinds of influences that can be distorting to judgment: emotions and partisan identity. In sum, Stoicism provides a novel theoretical framework for understanding political polarization, explaining why it is so difficult to overcome, and offering practical tools for addressing it.

Author

• Braedan Lynn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill