Deep Disagreement and Patience as an Argumentative Virtue

Abstract

During a year when there is much tumult around the world and in the United States in particular, it might be surprising to encounter a paper about patience and argumentation. In this paper, I explore the notion of deep disagreement, with an eye to moral and political contexts in particular, in order to motivate the idea that patience is an argumentative virtue that we ought to cultivate. This is particularly so because of the extended nature of argumentation and the slow rate at which we change our minds. I raise a concern about how calls for patience have been misused in the past and argue that if we accept patience as an argumentative virtue, we should hold people in positions of power, in particular, to account.

Virtue Theories of Argument

“…More specifically, the vice of arrogance and the virtue of courage have been proposed as relevant to deep disagreement (Aberdein 2020a, 2021a). Other virtues and vices have also been discussed in this context, for example, toleration (Knoll 2020) and patience (Phillips 2021). Another persistent debate concerns the status of adversariality: is it essential to argumentation and is it pernicious?…”

“…Andrew Aberdein and Daniel H. Cohen During a period in which there is much tumult around the world and in the United States especially, it might be surprising to encounter a paper about patience and argumentation, but Kathryn Phillips gives us such a paper in "Deep Disagreement and Patience as an Argumentative Virtue" (Phillips 2021). She delves deeply into the notion of deep disagreement, with particular attention to moral and political contexts, in order to motivate the idea that patience is an argumentative virtue that we ought to cultivate.…”