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This volume provides a multidisciplinary exploration of humility as a virtue through essays spanning religious and secular traditions. Essays examine the role of humility in one's alignment with a higher spiritual power, as well as its place in secular philosophy, including the epistemic value of humility in the development of knowledge. Finally, the volume explores humility's application within the professional fields of politics, business management, andcompetitive activities.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Conceptualizing Humility
- Chapter 1: Occupying Your Rightful Space, Alan Morinis
- Chapter 2: Secular Humility, Erik J. Wielenberg
- Chapter 3: A Critical Examination and Reconceptualization of Humility, Mark R. Leary and Chloe C. Banker
- Chapter 4: A Relational Humility Framework: Perceptions of Humility in Relational Contexts, David K. Mosher, Joshua N. Hook, Don E. Davis, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, and Everett L. Worthington Jr.
- Chapter 5: Humility in Four Forms: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Community and Ecological, Darcia Narvaez
- Chapter 6: Humility as a Foundational Virtue, Jennifer Cole Wright
- Part II: Moral Humility in our Lives
- Chapter 7: Humility: The Soil in Which Happiness Grows, Pelin Kesebir
- Chapter 8: Self-Other Concept in Humble Love As Exemplified by Long-Term Members of L'Arche, Robert C. Roberts and Michael Spezio
- Chapter 9: Humility and Helplessness in the Realization of Limitations within Hospice, Kay de Vries
- Chapter 10: Humility in Competitive Contexts, Michael W. Austin
- Chapter 11: Humility and Decision Making In Companies, Antonio Argandoña
- Chapter 12: Frederick Douglass and the Power of Humility, David J. Bobb
- Part III: Intellectual Humility
- Chapter 13: Self-Trust and Epistemic Humility, C. Thi Nguyen
- Chapter 14: Understanding Humility as Intellectual Virtue and Measuring it as Psychological Trait, Megan C. Haggard
About the author
Jennifer Cole Wright is Associate Professor of Psychology at the College of Charleston. She is an affiliate member of the Philosophy Department and Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program and Sustainability and Social Justice Faculty Fellow with the Honors College. Her area of research is moral development and moral psychology. She co-edited, with Hagop Sarkissian, Advances in Experimental Moral Psychology (Bloomsbury), and is currently co-authoring a book Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement (Oxford University Press) with Nancy E. Snow and Michael Warren.
Summary
The 21st century has seen a renewed interest in cultivating positive character traits, or virtues, to foster personal growth. Humility is a virtue that has long been understood--especially by early theological thinking and Western philosophers--through its associations with meekness and servility. Even in more recent, secular contexts, humility is associated with low-mindedness, self-denigration, and even self-loathing. While it seems paradoxical that this virtue can be developed to achieve a sense of well-being, this volume provides a comprehensive exploration of humility as an admirable and desirable trait that allows us to place the needs of others before our own, keep our accomplishments in perspective, and fully realize our small place in the world.
In a series of multidisciplinary essays spanning religious and secular traditions, this volume introduces readers to the many facets of humility. Essays explore perspectives from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam on the role of humility in determining how we should align ourselves with a higher spiritual power. Other essays examine the epistemic value of humility in the development of knowledge, and the applied nature of this virtue within the professional fields of politics, business management, nursing and hospice care, and competitive sports. This collection concludes by considering the possibility of humility as the most important virtue, foundational to the moral development and expression of all other virtues.
