Roberts's Misconceptions Of Humility

1. Roberts highlights the many misconceptions of humility. Some equate humility with pride. Those who lack “worldly success” (Roberts, 79) compete with others in terms of morality. The poor seek to beat the wealthy. Therefore, they lack humility because of their focus on competition. Roberts explains how, “they are humbling themselves in order to be exalted” (Roberts, 80). Others liken humility with low self confidence and being submissive. Roberts explains that this is not humility but rather “deeply engrained and ramified humiliation” (Roberts, 81). He believes that humility is a virtue. One has humility if they are able to experience self-confidence without putting down others. This stems from his notion that everyone is inherently equal—not in appearance but rather in
Aristotle explains that there is a clear distinction between having virtuous character and doing virtuous acts. They are by no means synonymous however, they are related. To have a virtue is to maintain a stable trait of character and a distinctive pattern of behavior. This being said, doing a temperate act does not make one temperate for you must do the act temperately. Simply doing a virtuous act doesn’t necessarily mean you're of virtuous character. He explains, “actions, then, are called just and temperate when they are such as the just or the temperate man would do; but it is not the man who does these that is just and temperate, but the man who also does them as just and temperate men do them” (Aristotle, 25). On the other hand, Aristotle highlights how most people don’t take virtuous action but still consider themselves of virtuous character through knowledge. These people, “take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way” (Aristotle, 25). One does not innately have virtue absent of virtuous action. He maintains that one becomes virtuous through habit therefore, continuous action leads to the development of character and therefore