The Virtue of Agency

Sphrosun, the canonical Greek virtue perhaps best reflected in the English term self-discipline, is little remembered today, but during the generations around Socrates it was the object of significant debate--about its scope, its feel, its practical manifestations, and its value. Christopher Moore show that classical Greek thinkers judged it more fundamental than mere desire-management or temperance: they saw it as the virtue of agency, the capacity to be a person truly responsible for his or her actions. This was the capacity to be guided by what's best, and to count, finally, as a coherent and unified self.