Humility

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, Judiasm, 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.

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.