ABSTRACT
It is generally recognized that the virtue of humility is somehow paradoxical. While I can truthfully brag about my courage or wisdom, it seems clear that I can’t truthfully boast about my humility. This chapter examines the nature of this paradox, and some of the history of how philosophers and theologians have attempted to unravel it. I argue that, in fact, there are at least five distinct (though related) paradoxes of humility. After discussing each in turn, I argue that historically there have been two different families of views about the nature of humility. The first and oldest conceives of humility as requiring one to have a low view of oneself (either in general or in some specific domain). The alternative view regards humility as consisting in being inattentive to oneself, specifically what one could brag about. Finally, I argue that this second view has the advantage of being able to resolve all five paradoxes of humility, while the first cannot.
