Texting while driving. Bullying people on social media. Buying into the latest conspiracy theory. Passing off AI-generated work as your own.
That may seem like a random list of 21st-century vices. But I’d argue they’re all examples of the loss of one particular virtue: sophrosyne.
, sophrosyne – ” – is what we might call “sound-mindedness” today. It’s a constellation of characteristics, including moderation, reflectiveness . They’re found in the kind of person who can respect and trust herself, and be respected and trusted by others.
As and , the . In particular, I’ve noticed a connection between sophrosyne and eudaimonia, , or living well.
Harmony of the soul
For the Greeks, . It was connected to , and stood in marked contrast with hubris: excessive pride, dangerous overconfidence and lack of self-insight. Heraclitus, a philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.E., taught that of all.
Plato, who taught a century later, as the ability to know oneself – and to . In “,” he likened sophrosyne to a harmony or friendship between the three parts of the soul: reason, spirit and bodily desires.
argued that sophrosyne – like someone who tries to get , neither too much nor too little. Aristotle taught that it was a virtue , just like training for a sport or learning to play a musical instrument.
Sound-mindedness, in short, is not inborn but must be learned.
Discipline and discernment
I believe sophrosyne is still essential for the good life, – happiness and human flourishing. It’s not a transitory feeling, but a sense of being your best self. This involves a kind of satisfaction that is not possible without self-knowledge and self-control.
What’s more, it requires the ability to discriminate between the good and the bad, the true and the false – capacities that are not inborn, but learned through steady practice. Without sophrosyne, it may not be possible to discern what is good for yourself or others. And even if you could, without sophrosyne you might to follow through.
If anything, these qualities might be even more important with the rise of artificial intelligence and social media. In my counseling practice, I’ve worked with people like “Brian,” an idealist who wanted truth and justice to win out over evil and oppression.
The problem was that he didn’t know how to vet his sources. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Brian fell down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. He was certain that the condensation left in airplanes’ wake were “chemtrails,” , and fumed against the “New World Order.” Thinking he knew it all, he was no longer open to reasoned dialogue.
But if Brian is an example of the loss of sophrosyne, another person I worked with, “Lee,” shows how we can develop it. Lee spent quite a bit of time on social media, but she began to wonder how it was affecting her. She slowed down, took more breaks and started paying more attention to what her mind was doing and to how she was feeling.
As Lee became more self-aware, she realized she was wasting her time. She no longer connected to the reasons she had used social media in the first place. “Consuming social media was making me uneasy. It was like pigging out on junk food,” she told me. “Now I read more books, prepare food and walk during the time I had been spending on social media.”
Ripple effect
For the Greeks, sophrosyne was an ideal second to none. In the 1960s, though, Plato scholars lamented that it was no longer “among our ideals.” That seems all the more true today – and the wider consequences are easy to see.
First, there’s the , in all its 21st-century forms – from . After the isolation of the pandemic, there’s even a new term for general social incivility: “.”
The decline of sophrosyne can also lead to , and – factors that can, in turn, undermine civility. Civility takes sustained awareness of oneself and others.
The consequences go beyond our friends, families and co-workers . If sound-mindedness suffers, excessive pride and overconfidence hurt our ability to and to respect other people’s differences.
Timeless virtue
There are a number of factors, I’d argue, that have led to the loss of sophrosyne, including a , more and greater , which leaves less time and energy for things like personal development.
Another is the , which considered central to . A true mentoring relationship involves both instruction and leading by example. It’s about character, not success defined by wealth and status. Today, it appears that and , with the rich and famous held up as examples worthy of emulation.
I believe the first step toward recovering sophrosyne is to recognize its importance in the good life. The second is to acknowledge its decline. The third is to understand the factors that have led to this decline.
Temperance, moderation, self-control, discernment – qualities such as these add up to a timeless that cannot be faked. Becoming such a person requires guidance, practice and consistency.
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