Abstract:
Humility is enjoying an upsurge of interest among contemporary virtue theorists. Unfortunately, many of these discussions have cast humility as inconsistent with social activism. Humility is assumed to consist of quiet and unobtrusive traits which seem inconsistent with the assertiveness and outspokenness required for social activism. Paul Bloomfield argues that this aspect of humility – being inconsistent with social activism – prevents it from counting as a virtue at all as a virtue must be the kind of thing that is always appropriate to possess and display. Here I attempt to present an account of humility that is not inconsistent with social activism and that can, and should, be considered a virtue where virtue is loosely understood to mean a generally desirable trait of character.
Keywords:
humility, Martin Luther King, Jr., social activism, transcendence, virtue
How to cite:
Wargin, Jennifer. “’We Must Speak’: Humility and Social Activism.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 6, no. 2 (2022): 51-61. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2022.0015.
Author:
Jennifer Wargin
Department of Philosophy, Northern Arizona University
1900 S Knoles Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1457-9044
jenniferwarg@gmail.com
References:
Alfano, Mark, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532.
Arnhart, Larry. “Statesmanship and Magnanimity: Classical, Christian, and Modern.” Polity (1983): 263-83. https://doi.org/10.2307/3234607.
Bloomfield, Paul. “Humility is Not a Virtue.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 36-46. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-5.
Bommarito, Nicolas. “Modesty as a Virtue of Attention.” The Philosophical Review 122, no.1 (2017): 93-117. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-1728723.
Chappell, Sophie Grace. “Humility Among the Ancient Greeks.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 187-68. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-21.
Church, Ian. “The Limitations of the Limitations-Owning Account.” Philosophia 45, no. 3 (2017): 1077-1084. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-017-9811-6.
Driver, Julia. “Modesty and Ignorance.” Ethics 109, no. 4 (1999): 827-34. https://doi.org/10.1086/233947.
Driver, Julia. “The Virtues of Ignorance.” Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 7 (1989): 373-84.
Flanagan, Owen. “Virtue and Ignorance.” Journal of Philosophy 87, no. 8 (1990): 420-28.
Garcia, Jorge L. A. “Being Unimpressed with Ourselves: Reconcieving Humility.” Philosophia 34, no. 4, (2006): 417-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-006-9032-x.
Holloway, Carson. “Christianity, Magnanimity, and Statesmanship.” The Review of Politics 61, no. 4 (1991): 581-604. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500050531.
Horner, David A. “What it Takes to be Great: Aristotle and Aquinas on Magnanimity.” Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers 15, no. 4 (1998): 415-44. https://doi.org/10.5840/faithphil199815440.
Jaskolla, Ludwig. “On the Puzzle of Self-Abasement: On an Adequate Concept of Humility.” Res Philosophica 93, no. 3 (2016): 585-600.
Johnson, Casey Rebecca. “Humility and the Toleration of Diverse Ideas.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 148-56. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-17.
Kellenberger, James. “Humility.” American Philosophical Quarterly 47, no. 4 (2010): 321-36.
Keys, Mary M. “Aquinas and the Challenge of Aristotelian Magnanimity.” History of Political Thought 24, no. 1 (2003): 37-65.
Kupfer, Joseph. “The Moral Perspective of Humility.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 84, no. 3 (2003): 249-69. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0114.00172.
Lynch, Michael P. “Conviction and Humility.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 139-47. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-16.
Maes, Hans. “Modesty, Asymmetry, and Hypocrisy.” Journal of Value Inquiry 38, no. 4 (2004): 485-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-005-3335-1.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. n.d. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence ~ MLK Speech 1967.” www.crmvet.org . Accessed September 6, 2022. https://www.crmvet.org/info/mlk_viet.pdf.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. n.d. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania . Accessed September 6, 2022. https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. Strength to Love. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1963.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Boston: Beacon Press, 1968.
Peterson, Claire Brown. “Humility in the Deficient.” Faith and Philosophy 34, no. 4 (2017): 403-24. https://doi.org/10.5840/faithphil201711289.
Richards, Norvin. “Is Humility a Virtue?” American Philosophical Quarterly 25, no. 3 (1988): 253-59.
Robinson, Brian. “‘I Am SO Humble!’: On the Paradoxes of Humility.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 26-35. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-4.
Schueler, G.F. “Why Modesty is a Virtue.” Ethics 107, no.3 (1997): 467-85. https://doi.org/10.1086/233745.
Snow, Nancy. “Humility.” Journal of Value Inquiry 29, no. 2 (1995): 203-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01079834.
Snow, Nancy. “Theories of Humility: An Overview.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Humility. Edited by Mark Alfano, Michael P. Lynch, and Alessandra Tanesini, 9-25. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351107532-3.
Wargin, Jennifer. “Humility as Transcendence.” Southwest Philosophy Review 38, no. 2 (2022): 63-79.
Whitcomb, Dennis, Heather Battaly, Jason Baehr, and Daniel Howard-Snyder. “Intellectual Humility: Owning Our Limitations.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 94, no. 3 (2015): 509-39. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12228.
Worthington, Everett L. Humility: The Quiet Virtue. West Conshohoken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2007.
Worthington, Everett L., Don E. Davis, and Joshua N. Hook. Handbook of Humility: Theory, Research, and Application. New York: Routledge, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660462.
Wright, Jennifer Cole. Humility. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Open Access Statement:
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Submitting a text to Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture means that the author agrees with the general conditions of this license. The author does and will maintain copyrights and publishing rights for his/her article without any restrictions.