Next month, I’ll be speaking at the Illinois State Bar Association’s 8th Annual Abraham Lincoln’s Legal Legacy seminar, which explores Lincoln’s legal philosophy and the ways it animated his career in the law and his presidency.
In preparing for this seminar, which is being co-presented by the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission, I have spent time researching and contemplating what historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described in her book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” as Lincoln’s “lifelong tendency to consider all sides of a troubled situation.”[i]
Whether it was nominating rivals to serve in his Cabinet, considering a policy issue from his opponent’s perspective, or endeavoring to anticipate an opposing counsel’s legal strategy by evaluating both sides of a case, Lincoln sought to hear and understand viewpoints that differed from his own.
Considering all sides
Lincoln’s commitment to hearing and understanding all sides was not a formality. He believed it would help him assess the most persuasive way to advance his own position or convince him of the merits of a better position.
To accomplish this goal, Lincoln recognized that he had to engage opponents and rivals with empathy and charity. This would enable him to better comprehend their position, as opposed to a straw-man version of it, and allow his opponents to actually hear his position, as it is only in the absence of ad hominem attacks that opponents are able to hear the other side.
This practice of genuine engagement through empathy and charity is at the heart of civility.
Too often, the concept of civility is flattened to mere politeness or placation. Instead of being a vital force that enables us to meaningfully and robustly engage in a pluralistic society, civility is sometimes reduced to an almost passive agreement to avoid delving into the issues that matter most.
This results in a disengaged posture toward those with whom we may disagree and eliminates the opportunity to persuade or be persuaded by better arguments.
Understanding the principles of civility
August is National Civility Month and an opportune time to renew our own commitments to some of the first principles that undergird civility. This includes:
- Interacting with others in a manner that affirms their inherent dignity, even if they are behaving uncharitably,
- Demonstrating respect for people’s rights to hold and express views with which you may disagree, and
- Engaging on matters of importance, even when such matters are controversial.
At times, this may result in treating people with respect who are not acting respectfully toward you. However, it remains the most likely way of transforming someone’s mind or heart.
Vigorously advocate while hearing ‘the other side’
Goodwin wrote in “Team of Rivals” that Lincoln “had observed that it was the nature of man, when told that he should be ‘shunned and despised,’ and condemned as the author ‘of all the vice and misery and crime in the land,’ to ‘retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.’”[ii]
Importantly, the civility ethos does not preclude vigorously advocating for the clients, positions, policies, changes, and causes we support, but it does preclude dehumanizing our opponents during the process.
Engraved on the wall of the Illinois Supreme Court’s courtroom is the phrase “audi alteram partem,” which means “hear the other side.”
Let us seek to do just that this National Civility Month and every month.
[i] Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 698.
[ii] Goodwin at 167.
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The post How to Engage on Polarizing Issues This National Civility Month appeared first on 2Civility.