On Shame

Contributor(s): Dr Phil Hutchinson, Professor Vasudevi Reddy, Dr Jonathan Webber | Shame is often depicted as playing a socially negative role. But might it also play an important positive role in our moral psychology, and for a flourishing political community? Is shame a source of self-knowledge, and a spur to transformative action, as Sartre and Beauvoir suggest? How important are other people to one’s feeling of shame? And how should we think about the developmental origins of shame? Phil Hutchinson is senior lecturer in philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. Vasudevi Reddy is professor of developmental and cultural psychology at the University of Portsmouth. Jonathan Webber is reader in philosophy at Cardiff University.