MODUS IN REBUS:
EROS, POLITICS, AND MODESTY
EDITORIAL
It is not moralism when we remark that, in the case of politicians, an evident absence of modesty or shame in the private sphere tends to indicate a lack of sense of limits, that is, of reality, which can be easily accompanied with an arrogant and tyrannical attitude. Leggi tutto »
Through a deep confrontation with Scheler’s and Bonhoeffer’s conceptions of modesty, the author defines modesty as a threshold-sentiment, which guards a disproportion and keeps memory of a lost nature. Leggi tutto »
Saying that modesty has disappeared from our society is too quick and easy. In truth, it has simply migrated to other contexts, within which it performs a regulative function in relation to post-traditional values. It would be incorrect also to think of modesty as of an entirely personal feeling. Leggi tutto »
The scene of Socrates’ death relates to us the philosopher’s last words, expressed in the famous and enigmatic sentence “we owe a cock to Asclepius. Make this offering to him and do not forget.” Before and after these words, however, Socrates makes and repeats a gesture that is overshadowed in the particular narrative structure of the Phaedo: he covers his face. Leggi tutto »
Before being an attitude, modesty is an emotional state. As all emotions, it is partially undetermined. In its uncertainty, however, modesty is self-confident: it does not know yet which form to take up exactly, yet it is defined by the rejection of the unformed; Leggi tutto »
The body is a living being—“living” means that which holds the body, and especially the body of the animal-human being, together. As already in Plotinus, “life” means a structural unbalance between the body and the knowledge of it. Leggi tutto »
The Italian word “pudore” means both a feeling of shame and the virtue of modesty. The concept of modesty as a true virtue is now compromised by the overcoming of the traditional dualistic conception of the human being. Leggi tutto »