Modesty’s inoffensive self-presentation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Philosophers often characterize modesty as a disposition that primarily or exclusively involves individual attitudes about one’s worth in relation to others. Borrowing from William James, I offer an interpersonal view of modesty that requires an emotional disposition sensitive to causing others offense based upon one’s self-presentation. On this view, modesty is a trait with the following three necessary features: (1) the modest person, A, endorses a norm of self-presentation M, (2) A is justified in believing that another person, B, endorses M, and (3) A is emotionally disposed to avoid offending B by violating M. These conditions account for the variety of modesty norms about one’s merits and achievements, personal objects, and traditional modesty norms in dress and self-presentation.