Christopher Woodard and I are leading a British-Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Small Grant-funded project on Civic Virtues and Vices. Our first workshop took place in Nottingham in November 2019.
Our keynote speakers were:
Thursday 7th November
11.15-12.30 Ryan Byerly (Sheffield) - ‘The Civic Significance of Others-Centredness and the Virtues of Intellectual Dependability’
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.15 Ana Gavran Milos (Rijeka) and Nebojša Zelič (Rijeka) -‘Civic Friendship, Affiliation and Justice: Aristotelian Lessons for Contemporary Societies’
3.15-3.45 Break
3.45-5.15 Keynote: Alessandra Tanesini (Cardiff) - ‘Hope and Trust as Scaffolding Virtues of Civic Institutions’
7.15 Dinner at Zizzi’s, Nottingham
Friday 8th November
9.30-10.45 Michel Croce (Lisbon) and Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (Genova)
10.45-11.15 Break
11.15-12.30 Matthew Bennett (Cambridge) - ‘Civic Trustworthiness’
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.15 Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij (Birkbeck, London) - ‘Voting Virtuously’
3.15-3.45 Break
3.45-5.15 Keynote: Lani Watson (Edinburgh) - ‘Good Questioning as Civic Virtue (or, Why We Must Choose to be Curious)’
The aims of the event
We wanted to think about the category of civic virtues, to see how they might relate to existing categories of ethical and epistemic virtues, and to see whether retrieving the categories of civic virtues would be warranted and useful. Some of the broad sets of questions of the workshop included:
Our keynote speakers were:
- Alessandra Tanesini (University of Cardiff)
- Lani Watson (University of Edinburgh)
Thursday 7th November
11.15-12.30 Ryan Byerly (Sheffield) - ‘The Civic Significance of Others-Centredness and the Virtues of Intellectual Dependability’
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.15 Ana Gavran Milos (Rijeka) and Nebojša Zelič (Rijeka) -‘Civic Friendship, Affiliation and Justice: Aristotelian Lessons for Contemporary Societies’
3.15-3.45 Break
3.45-5.15 Keynote: Alessandra Tanesini (Cardiff) - ‘Hope and Trust as Scaffolding Virtues of Civic Institutions’
7.15 Dinner at Zizzi’s, Nottingham
Friday 8th November
9.30-10.45 Michel Croce (Lisbon) and Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (Genova)
10.45-11.15 Break
11.15-12.30 Matthew Bennett (Cambridge) - ‘Civic Trustworthiness’
12.30-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.15 Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij (Birkbeck, London) - ‘Voting Virtuously’
3.15-3.45 Break
3.45-5.15 Keynote: Lani Watson (Edinburgh) - ‘Good Questioning as Civic Virtue (or, Why We Must Choose to be Curious)’
The aims of the event
We wanted to think about the category of civic virtues, to see how they might relate to existing categories of ethical and epistemic virtues, and to see whether retrieving the categories of civic virtues would be warranted and useful. Some of the broad sets of questions of the workshop included:
- Is there a distinct class of civic virtues? If so, how do they relate to, and different from, ethical and epistemic virtues? If so, what role, if any, might there be for the category of 'civic virtues' within our philosophical theorising about civic culture and participation?
- Are civic virtues better construed as ethical and epistemic virtues operative within the contexts of civic practice and agency?
- How might the putative class of civic virtues relate to wider topics and themes within contemporary political philosophy?
- Does the term civic virtue refer to (a) the virtues appropriate to civic agents or (b) the virtues of civic institutions and systems or (c) both of these?
- Are there virtues of citizens that would help political societies to flourish?
