Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Socratic Seminar - "On Self Respect"

I found this article to be very interesting. Self respect is a very complicated issue. I think the author breaks it down rather well and has a lot of good points to present. First of all, she says that one of the conditions necessary to have self respect is to have been driven back on yourself - to be put down, or not able to do something. This is a good thought and I think it is very true. If you are going to respect yourself, you must be able to take setbacks, and be able to live with them, perhaps even make a positive situation out of them. Another idea that the author presented was that self respect has nothing to do with the approval of others. Once again, I believe this is very correct. If you truly respect yourself, then it should not matter what other people think, or if other people approve or not. The author also says that people with courage can do without the approval from others, and the 'good reputation'. This is a good way to think of self respect as something more than just liking the way you look, or the way others think you look.

A point that the author presents later in the article is quite bold, but also true in my point of view. She says that, essentially, to have self respect is to have everything. If you have self respect you can posses love and remain indifferent. if you do not have self respect then you remain incapable of love and you cannot be indifferent. She also says that if you do not respect yourself, you must despise those that do respect themselves and you are not able to have the perception to recognize your "fatal weakness". Personally, I think that all of these ideas are true. Self respect is a very important thing and having self respect enables you to respect others as well.

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