Premium
On Diffidence: the Moral Psychology of Self‐Belief
Author(s) -
SMITH RICHARD
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2006.00498.x
Subject(s) - deconstruction (building) , epistemology , psychology , reading (process) , shyness , economic justice , social psychology , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , law , psychiatry , political science , biology , ecology , anxiety
The language of self‐belief, including terms like shyness and diffidence, is complex and puzzling. The idea of self‐esteem in particular, which has been given fresh currency by recent interest in ‘personalised learning’, continues to create problems. I argue first that we need a ‘thicker’ and more subtle moral psychology of self‐belief; and, secondly, that there is a radical instability in the ideas and concepts in this area, an instability to which justice needs to be done. I suggest that aspects of deconstruction are helpful here, and offer a deconstructive reading of Kipling's poem, If —, in order to illustrate the power of literature and a certain kind of philosophy to destabilise and resist closure.