Commentary
In a paper on History and Civility, Larry Schaefer writes that “Civility is one of our most honored and valued words, a five-star word … It walks in partnership with other honored words such as politeness, duty, and civilized. There are those who say that duty and civility should be expressed together: the duty of civility.”
This “duty of civility” has developed over the last 2,500 years, a trajectory that the author describes in his paper. It is fair to say that, nowadays, people know instinctively that “civility” is a prerequisite for living together amicably. One would expect that this duty is also taken seriously by tennis players, who spend time together over a potentially 14-day period during Grand Slams….