165. - Shame

Summary

Spinoza’s mature notion of shame (pudor) is perhaps best reflected in the definition he gives for it in E3DA31: shame is a sadness (tristitia), accompanied by the idea of some action (NS: of ours) which we imagine that others blame. Here, and in his earliest remarks about shame in the KV, he follows, but modifies, Descartes’s definition of shame (Passions of the Soul §205), by defining it as a form of sadness responsive to opinions or ideas of oneself imputed to others. Both acknowledge – as Spinoza also remarks in KV2.12 (i/75) – that shame is sometimes “advantageous” in that it may be “used” to motivate “improvement.”