Lo strano caso del pudore (vicario) e della sua atmosfera

(The strange Case of (Vicarious) Modesty and its Atmosphere)

Abstract

Saying that modesty has disappeared from our society is too quick and easy. In truth, it has simply migrated to other contexts, within which it performs a regulative function in relation to post-traditional values. It would be incorrect also to think of modesty as of an entirely personal feeling. Like most feelings, it is atmospherically diffused in the external space of experience and captures the one who experiences it “from the outside.” This is so even when the case is that of “vicarious” modesty, that is, modesty felt on behalf of someone who might not or does not feel it at all. Like all other atmospherical feelings, modesty (even of a vicarious nature) acts as a quasi-thing, thus suggesting an ontology in which the gnosic is not to the detriment of the pathic.