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"A Monkish Kind of Virtue"? For and Against Humility
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19
Bernard, Steps of Humility, p. 42; Thomas Kempis, Imitation, chapter 2. In a related way, Pascal argues
that man’s greatness derives from the knowledge of his wretchedness that humility helps make possible.
Pascal, Pensées, trans. A.J. Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin Books, 1995), 122, p. 31.
20
I Peter 5: 6.
21
Luke 14: 11; 18: 14.
22
See for just one example, Colossians 3: 12-24.
23
See Job 41: 33-4. See Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Michael Oakeshott (New York: Collier Books,
1962), chapters 17 and 28.
24
See Leviathan, chapter 15, especially the ninth and tenth laws of nature.
25
Montaigne, The Complete Essays, trans. M.A Screech (New York: Penguin Books, 1991), p. 716.
26
Essays, p. 756.
27
The most extensive treatment and critique of this problematic is Charles Taylor’s, Sources of the Self
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989).
28
Quoted in Arthur O. Lovejoy, Lecture V, in Reflections on Human Nature (Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1961), p. 155.
29
Pascal: “Few speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, dubiously of skepticism,” Pensées, 655,
pp. 212-213. See also Franklin where, after grudgingly adding humility to the list of virtues in accordance
with which he plots his development towards “moral perfection,” he comes to the realization that: “In
reality there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride…. Even if I could
conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility.” The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 103.
30
Spinoza, The Ethics, trans. R.H.M. Elwes (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), III, xxvi, p. 178.
31
Ethics, III, xxix, p. 180.
32
Ibid.
33
La Rouchefoucauld, Maxims, trans. Leonard Tancock (New York: Penguin Books, 1959), 254; 358.
34
Kant seems to recognize this problem with virtue ethics in his Doctrine of Virtue, in The Metaphysics of
Morals. For a recent attempt to account for this within virtue theory more generally, see Julia Driver, “The
Virtues and Human Nature,” in How Should One Live? ed. Roger Crisp (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
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19
Bernard, Steps of Humility, p. 42; Thomas Kempis, Imitation, chapter 2. In a related way, Pascal argues
that man’s greatness derives from the knowledge of his wretchedness that humility helps make possible.
Pascal, Pensées, trans. A.J. Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin Books, 1995), 122, p. 31.
20
I Peter 5: 6.
21
Luke 14: 11; 18: 14.
22
See for just one example, Colossians 3: 12-24.
23
See Job 41: 33-4. See Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Michael Oakeshott (New York: Collier Books,
1962), chapters 17 and 28.
24
See Leviathan, chapter 15, especially the ninth and tenth laws of nature.
25
Montaigne, The Complete Essays, trans. M.A Screech (New York: Penguin Books, 1991), p. 716.
26
Essays, p. 756.
27
The most extensive treatment and critique of this problematic is Charles Taylor’s, Sources of the Self
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989).
28
Quoted in Arthur O. Lovejoy, Lecture V, in Reflections on Human Nature (Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1961), p. 155.
29
Pascal: “Few speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, dubiously of skepticism,” Pensées, 655,
pp. 212-213. See also Franklin where, after grudgingly adding humility to the list of virtues in accordance
with which he plots his development towards “moral perfection,” he comes to the realization that: “In
reality there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride…. Even if I could
conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility.” The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 103.
30
Spinoza, The Ethics, trans. R.H.M. Elwes (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), III, xxvi, p. 178.
31
Ethics, III, xxix, p. 180.
32
Ibid.
33
La Rouchefoucauld, Maxims, trans. Leonard Tancock (New York: Penguin Books, 1959), 254; 358.
34
Kant seems to recognize this problem with virtue ethics in his Doctrine of Virtue, in The Metaphysics of
Morals. For a recent attempt to account for this within virtue theory more generally, see Julia Driver, “The
Virtues and Human Nature,” in How Should One Live? ed. Roger Crisp (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
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