ABSTRACT
This chapter articulates and defends the idea that skepticism, so understood, is a civic virtue, drawing on David Hume's discussion of mitigated skepticism in the closing section of his Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, and also articulates a proposal for how to educate for skepticism, based on Benjamin Franklin's discussion of intellectual humility in his Autobiography. The definitions of skepticism, intellectual humility, and intellectual criticism focus on knowledge at the expense of other epistemic statuses. It assume that virtues are, roughly, valuable character traits. The expression "civic virtue" is ambiguous. The civic domain is the domain of activity characteristic of citizenship. The chapter presents intellectual humility as a part or aspect of skepticism: Intellectual humility is excellence in attributing ignorance to yourself, withholding attributing knowledge to yourself, and questioning whether you know. Being skeptical is conducive to compromise. The democracy deals with the plurality of ways of life, by providing a means for peaceful coordination between a diverse group of people.
