Agree on How to Disagree: Aristotelian Ethics and Conversational Virtue

Abstract

Partisanship and polarization lend themselves to the problem of demonizing, where citizens construct narratives about ideological opponents. These demonizing narratives pose a danger to democratic politics, as they can prevent consensus and compromise and possibly even invite violence. In thinking about how to combat demonization, I turn to Aristotle’s virtue ethics and the particular virtues of “friendliness,” “truthfulness,” and “wittiness.” These “conversational virtues” govern how we ought to interact within social contexts. By looking to these conversational virtues, we can determine how to leverage ethical principles not traditionally associated with political institutions.