Humility

in my Plato book (Rational Spirituality and Divine Virtue in Plato), I showed that in Republic Chapters 5-7, Plato explains ideas that might lead Socratic discussion to a positive outcome, a flawless concept of what a given virtue might be at its most perfect.  In the process of trying to develop a model of Socratic/Platonic reasoning I could teach to students.  The following is a long discussion of the virtue of humility trying to illustrate how Socratic reasoning about a virtue works, from beginning to end, taking this virtue as an example.

i should say at the beginning that this is ONLY ONE EXAMPLE of how a discussion of the virtue of humility might proceed.   This mode of critical reasoning does not aim to arrive at agreement on the one true ideal Platonic Form of any given virtue.  Its very nature as individual self-critical self-exploration makes it incapable of doing this.  If at some point you “disagree” with my thoughts, you might take this as an opportunity to do your own individual self-critical self-exploration taking the discussion in a different direction.  The aim is to progress toward some concept of humility known to be a flawless representation of something perfect in its goodness by its ability to withstand all Socratic attempts to find flaws in it.  There may in principle be a number of humility-concepts that meet this criteria.  “Perfect in its Goodness “ is not the same as universally and exclusively valid..

Humility (1)

Some Q & A

1. Will Socratic reasoning about a virtue like humility actually make a person more humble?  The simple answer is “Of course not.”  Just as, of course, an architect drawing up plans in his study does not actually get a building built.

Socratic reasoning only gives you ideal goals to strive for
if you want to begin moving toward the most ideal kind of humility (moving
toward an imperfect ideal of humility might lead you toward some kind of
“humility” that is not actually admirable. See my Plato book p. 19-22).

2. Suppose you have formulated in your mind a flawless Platonic Form of humility to guide your attempts to become more humble.  How do you actually go about moving toward this ideal of excellent humility?  Plato himself actually has little to offer in this respect. 

Some of my Thoughts:

Becoming more humble is not a matter of following some rules or advice for how to behave in a humble manner.  You can imitate the behavior of a humble person without actually being a humble person yourself.  Like any virtue, humility is an internal character trait, an ongoing internal/invisible habit of mind, that will manifest itself in visible humble behavior, but which is not itself visible from the outside. (Only certain kinds of occasions call for humble behavior. A humble person does not cease being a humble person on those occasions when she is not acting in a humble manner.)

3. This I think leads to thinking about basic attitudes and motivations.  Think about behavior that is the opposite of humble behavior – like the habit of being boastful.  What might motivate a person to be habitually boastful?  Answering this question will give you some clue as to those kinds of habits-of-mind (habitual motivations) that you might need to overcome in order to become a more humble person.  Some progress can then be made by becoming more introspectively aware of your own motivations: When you find yourself wanting to show off, try to understand what it is that motivates this.  Where does the need to show off come from?  This gives you some sense of character traits and habits of mind that need to be weakened and overcome in order to become more humble.

This can then lead also to reflection on ideal positive motivations for humility.  How can you conceive of those kinds of habits of mind, habitual motivations, or habitual fundamental attitudes in social interactions, that would constitute the essence of the virtue of humility?  These are the kinds of motivations you would want to get in touch with and foster in yourself. 

Obviously, both the process of developing virtue-ideals, and the process of becoming more virtuous, are long-term projects.  Socratic reasoning does not offer individual bits of advice for “what to do when….” that you could remind yourself of when the situation arises, and put into practice tomorrow.  (Some comments on this topic are found on p. 114-118 of my Plato book.)

Humility (2: The Ultimate Goal

Remember the ultimate ambitious goal in Platonist spirituality: Try to make yourself as much as possible a representative of perfect “divine” humility in an imperfect world. This is a spiritually very ambitious goal. Divine humility is not your normal garden-variety humility, represented by easy-to-understand ideas of humility everyone is already familiar with – which Plato regards as “mediocre” humility at best.

Knowledge is already in you

On the other hand, you should also assume that the knowledge of this otherworldly perfect Platonic Form of humility is already in your consciousness somewhere, not something you need to learn from elsewhere. Digging it out is like mining silver: separate the pure silver (the perfect Platonic Form) from “impurities,” ideas that might be associated with humility but are not the pure Platonic essence.

So the perfect Platonic Form of humility is both something you already know, and something most difficult to know. It is something already implicitly present somewhere in your intuitive feelings and perceptions about humility. But assume that it is also something that will be difficult to grasp in a pure and explicit form. To make progress you will have to go out of your way to puzzle yourself, think of considerations that will take you out of the comfort zone of ideas already familiar.

Humility as an habitual attitude

True humility, like any other social virtue, is a fundamental attitude that will be part of your character (present even when you are not behaving humbly at the moment). Insofar as it is a social virtue, involved in social interactions with others, it is going to be a fundamental attitude that is part of your habitual way of relating to other people. So the definition of the Platonic Form of humility should be a definition of some kind of fundamental attitude toward others that will be to some degree present in most of your dealings with others.

Besides “attitude,” another thing to think about is motivation. Obviously the best kind of humility is not something you practice because you think it is your duty. Try to define clearly what you think might be the best kind of motivation, that might motivate the best kind of humble attitudes and behavior in social interactions?

Being a representative of divine humility in the world is a practical goal, something quite difficult, but something you could make substantial progress toward if you put your mind to. Cultivating the most admirable kind of humility is similar to learning any skill. It takes constant practice. Except that long term efforts to mold your own character so as to become a more humble person will involve trying to identify more often with attitudes and motivations that you identify as the essence of humility.

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Humility (3): Some thought exercises helpful in Socratic questioning:

#1. Expand your associations with humility by thinking of a number of different specific examples, to give you more material to think about. You probably have more ideas about humility that you think, if you make some effort to explore.

These could be

• concrete examples humble attitudes or behavior
• some examples of opposites of humble attitudes or behavior
• some specific attitudes or behavior that might be called “humble,” but which you think do not represent a truly admirable kinds of humility.

#2. Not all situations call for humility. What specific kinds of situations are the the specific kinds that call for humility? What specific kinds of situations really test your humility, because they make it hard to be humble, or because they are situations where you might feel strong impulses toward attitudes and behavior that are the exact opposite of humility? It is easier to be humble in some circumstances than in in others. It helps to think of the more difficult ones.

#3. Some virtues like humility are easiest to describe in terms of self-control, what you keep yourself from doing – e.g. a humble person refrains from showing off. But highly admirable humility cannot be defined in terms of what a humble person refrains from doing. The most ideal and most admirable kind of humility must be able to be defined in some more positive way. Try to give positive descriptions of fundamental attitudes or motivations that motivate “being humble” in the most ideal case.

#4. Actively seek out puzzling facts or observations, giving you puzzles that you will need to try to resolve to formulate a clear and coherent definition of humility that will incorporate all the main intuitions you have about it. Seeking out puzzles that are not easily resolved is one of the best ways of forcing you out of the comfort zone of ideas already familiar to you, making it more likely that this will be a learning experience, generating results you might not have initially anticipated.

#5. Ultimately, after you have generated a number of different ideas and puzzles in the above ways, try to reach some kind of unified definition, if possible some single concept which will be the central core, around which other associations with humility can be organized. In my experience, this is often the most difficult part, but the part where you might make most progress in learning some new ideas which you would not have expected.

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To Illustrate

Just to illustrate how some of these exercises might work out in practice, here are some of the ideas I myself came up with.

One opposite of humility

One of the main opposites of humility is a tendency to boast and brag, the urge to tell others about my accomplishments and achievements. Another example opposite of humility is a person who insists on being “the smartest person in the room” at every meeting.

One Puzzle

But here is a bit of a puzzle.
It seems like it is sometimes good to call attention to your achievements and strengths What about interviews, or when you know you have something unique to offer? In those situations, I would think that a person who insists on not speaking about his or her strengths and achievements might appear to be showing “humility,” but this is not the kind I think is the admirable kind. This is one of the puzzles to try to resolve: How to describe “being humble” in a way that makes being a very humble person compatible with sometimes calling attention to your strengths and achievements, “letting your little light shine,” as an old gospel song has it.

Another puzzle

“Pride” might seem like one way of describing the “vice” that is the opposite of humility. But we also admire individuals who “take pride” in themselves. So clearly humility cannot consist in getting rid of everything called “pride.” Is there one kind of pride that is indeed a vice opposite the virtue of humility, and another kind of pride in oneself this is admirable and ought to be able to co-exist with the best kind of humility? How can we describe the difference between these two kinds of pride?

Accepting being demeaned?

Along with this: It might at first seem that a servant who accepts being demeaned by his boss is an example “being humble.” But this clearly is not true if the servant accepts a “humble” status only so long as he is forced to, and would be a boss demeaning others if he had the opportunity. Nor is it admirable if the servant accepts demeaning treatment because he has a low self-image and thinks he deserves no better. These are examples of things that might resemble humility but are obviously not instances of the most admirable kind of humility. This can be a good stimulus to try to define the marks of admirable humility, defined by contrast with these other things that resemble humility but which are not admirable.

What situations make it difficult to be humble?

But there might be occasions in which indeed the most admirable thing for me to do is to accept a position as “the low man on the totem pole.” These might indeed be occasions that make it difficult to be humble, and that therefore might be a good test of whether I am a truly humble person or not. I might find it relatively easy to “be humble” in many ordinary situations, but the best kind of humility would come natural to me on all occasions, even the ones that might make being humble most difficult for me.

What is it about my psychological makeup that might make it difficult to be humble on all occasions, even the most difficult? Defining this would give me a good idea of what character-defects (the exact opposites of humility) I might have, that I would have to overcome in order to cultivate the best kind of humility.

Things that might be obstacles to being a humble person are likely to be things that also motivate attitudes and behavior that are the opposites of humility. For example, what is it that might motivate me to want to make sure others are aware of my strengths and achievements? Isn’t there something good about “letting my little light shine.” How can I define the bad kind of boasting, and how does this differ from the good kind of letting my little light shine? One thought occurs to me: Boasting is a kind of “pushing it,” not just letting my light shine, but actively trying to make it shine, since maybe it won’t shine sufficiently bright unless I push it.

Self-confidence a prerequisite for humility?

This led me to think of another puzzle: I think that the urge to boast could well be a manifestation of my insecurity. My insecurity puts me in need of approval and admiration of others, and this is why I need to tell them all good things about myself. So perhaps it is actually insecurity and lack of real self-confidence that might make me want to boast a bit. It might at first seem that being “self-confident” is something very different from being humble. But perhaps I need to rethink: Perhaps self-confidence is more of an essential part of humility than I might have thought.

“Thinking I’m better”

Another line of thought: The opposite of a humble person is a person who “puts on airs” and “think’s he’s better” than others. Perhaps it will help define humility by thinking of the exact opposite of a person who “thinks he’s better” than others. Another opposite of humility is a person who feels “entitled,” goes through life feeling that he is entitled to special treatment, special privileges. He cuts in line ahead of others because he feels he deserves a special place ahead of others. But aren’t there some ways in which it could be true that I am better than others in some respects (if I could speak Swahili and they can’t, or if I knew more about cars than they do)?

Treating everyone as my equal

This got me to thinking about equality, treating everyone as my equal. Perhaps what motivates admirable humility would be the habit of trying to see everyone I meet, no matter who it is, as in some very basic way my equal. This put me in mind of a saying I once came across from G. K. Chesterton, something like “Everyone is ordinary. Extraordinary are the ones that know it.”
Perhaps one of the main obstacles to being humble is the desire not to be ordinary, to want to think of myself as at least in some way superior to individuals I meet and interact with. They are more ordinary, I am more extraordinary. For some reason this made me think of a novel I read a long time ago by Walker Percy, I think called The Moviegoer. The Moviegoer has difficulty just leading an ordinary life. He goes to movies a lot because people in movies live extraordinary lives. He wants to have a life more like theirs.

And yet isn’t there something good about being ambitious, wanting to live an extraordinary life? The most admirable kind of humility cannot consist in being willing to lead a boring and meaningless life. Again, the most admirable kind of humility must be the kind that is compatible with the ambition to lead a great life. In some ways, Platonism itself, including the desire to be a representative of divine humility in the world, is very spiritually ambitious, the desire to live a very extraordinary life.

Back to treating everyone as my equal. Thinking about different virtues lately has made me think about the particular character of social virtues, those virtues that come into play mainly when interacting with other people. I think perhaps the quality of social virtues depends in some way on what they contribute to high quality relating, high quality connections with other people. Perhaps I should think about what interacting in a humble way – for example treating everyone as my equal – contributes to the quality of my connection to these others. Or the opposite: How does boasting or looking down on others inhibit high quality connections to these others? Maybe being humble contributes to the quality of relating partly because it puts others more at ease, on occasions where they might not feel at ease (e.g. if I am a college professor interacting with students).

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These are my individual thoughts — not univesral

So here is a collection of my own various thoughts about humility. For the sake of giving a specific and detailed example of how Socratic reasoning works in practice. I had to take the discussion in a certain specific direction, necessarily depending on my own associations, articulating things that my own life experience has taught me about humility. Different thoughts will occur to others, in which case they would take the discussion in a different direction, and probably end up with a different concept of what humility would be at its best. I argued in my Plato book that this kind of possible diversity in outcomes is a necessary consequence of the fact that each individual must do this for herself, exploring what her life experience has taught her about whatever virtue she might want to think about.

Some might regard this as a limitation, if they think that the goal is to reach some “universal” concept of humility, something which is THE essence of humility. I think universality is irrelevant. This doesn’t mean that anything goes (“relativism”). There may indeed by quite a number of different perfect and flawless “Platonic Forms” of humility – shown to be flawless by their ability to withstand severe questioning. But there are obviously a much larger number of flawed humility-concepts, which cannot stand up very well under serious questioning.

But for the time being, you might take my above thoughts as materials to think about, or add to them if you want. But mainly think how to unify them. Which of these many ideas stands out to you as most important and most central, perhaps close to the (or a) Platonic essence of humility. Try especially to use these thoughts to formulate a description of humility as a basic attitude you might take toward others in social interactions. And think of what in the best case ought to motivate taking a humble attitude to others. I’d like to make this the focus of our next meeting, asking everybody for ideas for unifying the above set of ideas.

Keep in mind the practical goal

Keep in mind the practical purpose of this. You want to imagine some ideal kind of attitude you could resolve to try to take more often in your daily interactions, and thus eventually make habitual. What motivations could you imagine yourself having, motivating this relating in a humble manner? How could you, by repeatedly cultivating and adopting these kinds of motivations, make them part of your character, so that they would eventually come naturally to you, and spontaneously manifest themselves in your interactions? This might also involve some self-criticism: What in your psychological makeup prevents you from adopting humble attitudes and integrating into your personality the best kinds of motivations motivating the best kind of humility?

(This might get into some deeper psychotherapeutic analysis, aiming at a deeper kind of internal transformation, changing your own psychological dynamics at a deeper level. I have fond Karen Horney’s book, Neurosis and Human Growth particularly helpful in this respect. She treats therapy, not as a matter of bringing individuals back to “normalcy.” Therapy has a more ethically ambitious goal, resolving psychological problems that prevent individuals from becoming “more virtuous” as I would put it.)

Humility (4)- Summary of previous ideas, and my own attempt to unify them.

Summary

1. One opposite of humility: the tendency to brag.

But refusing to ever make known to others my strengths and achievements is not a good kind of “humility”

It can be good to “let my little light shine.” What is the difference between letting my light shine and bragging?

One difference: bragging is pushing it, rather than letting my light shine.

2. Another thing that represents not-good humility (a “counterexample”) is having low self-esteem, not taking pride in yourself.

But on some occasions, it might be good and admirable to accept a low-status position in a group.  Isolating what might make this difficult – a test of how humble I am – would give me a clue as to what flaws I need to remedy in myself to achieve the most excellent kind of humility.

3. One thing that might incline me to brag is insecurity.  If I felt more secure and self-confident, I would not have so great a need to try to get others’ admiration.  So more self-confidence might contribute to more excellent humility, rather than being its opposite.

4. Another opposite to humility is the tendency to look for some flaw in others that can allow me to feel superior to them.  The positive opposite of this is the habit of treating everyone as basically my equal.

But the good kind of humility cannot consist in giving up any ambition to excel.

5. Humility is a social virtue, coming into play in interactions with others.  Maybe what this means is that the goodness of good humility lies in what a humble attitude might contribute to the quality of meaningful connections I make with other individuals when I interact with them.

Try to bring unity to these various considerations, yielding some central things I can be more conscious of as I interact with others.  What are motivations I might become aware of that are flaws that I would need to dis-identify with in order to become more admirably humble?  What are positive ideal kinds of attitudes and motivations I might take as an ideal to try to cultivate so that they come more naturally to me.

My own thoughts about a unified conclusion

When I interact with another individual, I do so on the basis of some picture I have of this individual and my relation to him or her.  Cultivate the habit of picturing each individual as my equal.  If this is sometimes difficult, figure out what in my psychology makes it difficult, and work on this.  The positive motivation for this is that this will ultimately make for more meaningful social interactions

Insofar as most interactions are occasions for some kind of self-revelation, this should be “natural” rather than forced.  “Natural” means that it is appropriate to the entire situation I am in, what I might best bring to this situation, and the kind of interaction my manner invites from the other person.  (This is a kind of “knowing my place” which might be a “lower” place in a given situation).  This requires cultivating greater sensitivity to the particular and unique character of each social situation.  Be sensitive in this way and then aim to be able to comfortably and self-confidently “do what comes naturally.”

Bill writes
“You play up the superior/inferior idea, but I disagree.  A person with great humility may in fact be superior and not worry about it or think about it.”

I agree that a person who had already achieved a very high level of humility would no longer think in terms of superior/inferior.  But I’m not there yet.  And in my present state, problems about humility arise when I resist taking what presently feels to me like an “inferior” position (I’m being ignored, feel “humiliated,” I’m asked to do more menial tasks while others do more seemingly “important” things, I’m asked to learn from others, to defer to others, to pay attention to their stuff rather than my stuff, etc.). 

When I think of humility, I think of the ability to “humble myself,” and what makes me likely to resist this and find it difficult, is if I feel I am being asked to take what feels to me like an “inferior” position, treating others as my superiors. So the fact that in some situations I still am very aware of feeling “put down” or “dissed”, and resist this – this is a sign of something in me that I would have to look into and overcome in order to become a more humble person.

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