Pudore, nudità, dualismo

Abstract

The Italian word “pudore” means both a feeling of shame and the virtue of modesty. The concept of modesty as a true virtue is now compromised by the overcoming of the traditional dualistic conception of the human being. This rejection of the concept of modesty as a true virtue, however, appears to be based on the claim to reduce the whole human life to its objective and material aspects. On the contrary, the safeguard of the (lato sensu) spiritual dimension and of the wealth of possibilities of fulfillment of the human life requires the preservation of modesty as a virtue; this virtue, however, can’t be based on the belief that the parts of our body that we don’t show publicly have to be hidden as shameful; on the contrary, they have to be kept for intimacy and protected from the complete reduction to mere objectivity without reference to their expressive value.