ABSTRACT
This chapter explores shame as a condition – even as a determining precondition – of value as such, even to capital; and will find how it relates to moral capital and to cultural capital. Amartya Sen frequently rehearses J. S. Mill's definition of democracy as "governance by discussion". The idea – as in Habermas – is that rational societies seek, through non-coercive discussion, the better argument. It is here that democracy itself can become contaminated and destabilized by shame. The texts in this chapter discusses, in which shame is the instrument by which one can change shameful activity, are all politically motivated by a desire for greater democracy and by a challenge to unearned and class-based authority. The place where one usually encourages such thought is, in its highest formulation, the University institution. With this one can now come to a concluding observation about the now shameful University.
