On page 81, Williams
touches on the notion that shame is not driven by fear of discovery. I think
that this goes to a compelling view that the concept of shame is not an
entirely social one, but may be deeply linked to our sense of morality as well.
When we envision shame, one of the first things that comes to mind is the verb
form “to shame”, which conjures images of people shaming others for some trait
or act. Williams accurately associates shame with nakedness and embarrassment.
This sense of shame is contingent on social circumstances. Oftentimes we do not
feel any shame in our activities until those whom we do not want to know
discover us. Being naked, for example, is not itself shameful, but being naked
in front of a child, or in public, might be. In other words, in order for this social
shame to take hold, there requires an external observer. And this concept is
not inaccurate, but neither is it complete.
There is another
concept of shame that doesn’t rely on social interaction: self-shame. It is
possible, and even common, for people to feel ashamed in themselves. If upon
reflection we believe we have done something wrong, the phrase “I’m ashamed of
myself,” comes to mind. People have a sense of shame that exists solely within
themselves, and isn’t contingent upon outside observers. One can be ashamed of
one’s actions without anyone else ever knowing what transpired. This helps us
better understand what the attitude of shame is really getting at: there seems
to be elements of embarrassment and disappointment, but most importantly there
is a moral element of wrongdoing. I think the emotions most closely related to
shame are regret and guilt. When we admit we are ashamed of doing something,
what we typically are saying is “I did something morally wrong.” With
wrongdoing being at the center of shame, the attitude transforms into a moral
tool. Its purpose then becomes one of identifying and attacking immorality,
which I think well illustrates what shame is actually used for.
ReplyDeleteI am inclined to agree with you that the point and purpose of blame includes acting as the mechanism we use to regulate immorality within our particular ‘ecosystem.’ I also find your claim that wrongdoing is at the center of this point and purpose is intriguing. If wrongdoing is an intrinsic part of blame this assertion makes sense however, there are types of shame one can feel in which no wrongdoing has occurred (at least in the sense you speak of it here). Take the poetry example for instance. There are two types of offences in this case; one, that I left out my poetry in a place it could be easily seen by accident and two, someone else read my poetry that I did not give them permission to read. I hardly classify either of these actions as wrongdoings as much as I do misfortunes or even just life events. Nothing inherently wrong has been done and yet I am still ashamed that my poetry has been read. This shame could even come from merely writing the poetry and having what you define as self-shame from it. Even if no one has read my poetry but for whatever reason, whether that be about the topic or simply a lack of confidence, I am still ashamed of it. I do not think wrongdoing is applicable center for this case either. This leads me to attempt to define what the center of shame really is if not something as clean cut as wrongdoing.
I find your claim very intriguing and thought provoking. I think we hold rather similar views, though they may depart slightly from each other in certain aspects. I would stay that in all cases, in order to feel ashamed for an action one would need to realize that the action was inappropriate or simply just a poor representation of his or her character. Feeling ashamed for any action—whether it is known by others or not—would be reflecting on the action as something that was inappropriate. I am not sure how closely this relates to judging the action as immoral though; I think we can feel ashamed for actions that may not be considered immoral if we simply do not like how they may reflect our character. Though, I would still agree that the emotions associated with shame relate to remorse or guilt. Maybe the reason we feel ashamed for being naked in public is the realization of it being inappropriate in that setting. Whereas, being naked in our own privacy does not hold the same context.
ReplyDeleteThe act of “social shaming” represents a way that external observers attempt to make someone feel ashamed for an action they performed. Social shaming is not required for an individual to feel ashamed, nor will it certainly mean the individual will feel ashamed for their action. Only if the individual feels that their action was a poor representation of their character will they feel ashamed for that action.
I think that you’re right that shame and guilt are commonly found together. But I think that there is also an important distinction to make as well; guilt seems to be the feeling that comes about after you realized you did something wrong, and shame (if it is shame about doing something wrong) seems to be the feeling that comes about after having presented yourself differently to others as the type of person to do wrong things. So when you do something wrong and no one has seen it, you feel guilt because you know that you have done something morally wrong. You feel shame, however, not fundamentally because of the wrongness of the action, but because you surprised yourself by revealing yourself, to yourself, as someone who would do that wrong thing. I think it is also important to emphasize the element of surprise in self-shame. I think shame comes about when others see you differently from how you normally present yourself to others. If you are the “other”, for you to see yourself differently than how you normally think of yourself, I think that it has to be unexpected. If someone knows themselves to be the type of person to do a particular wrong action and they do it, I think that he would only feel guilt and possibly shame when others sees him, but I don’t think he would feel self-shame. For example, I could feel ashamed of myself for cheating on an exam if I had always thought that I am not the type of person to cheat on tests. But if I habitually cheat on exams, I may feel guilt and I may feel shame when others realize that I am a cheater when I act like I am not, but it seems weird to say that I would feel self-shame in a situation where no one sees that I am cheating and I decide to cheat again.
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