Demut

For some years, the old virtue humility has been enjoying a new lease of life. Contemporary appropriations and modulations of humility are arguably characterised by the tendency to leave out its darker and more complicated sides. This is understandable, but at the same time regrettable: for it is precisely the entanglements and paradoxes, indeed the abysses of humility that have repeatedly inspired reflection on this virtue and its precarity. By using the motif of arrogant humility as an example, the book explores just those disagreeable and entangled sides of humility which make reflection on humility so meaningful and illuminating. It becomes clear that the reflection on humility inspired by the great texts of tradition does not only concern humility, but also touches on fundamental questions of ethics.