Law Religion Culture Review

Exploring the intersections of law, religion and culture. Copyright by Richard J. Radcliffe. All rights reserved.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Humility is Beauty, Part II.

In my ethics class this summer, we have been discussing a "virtue-based" ethical paradigm. I shared with the students an experience I had last week with a judge practically defining the virtue of humility.

Our case had been assigned to a judge (apart from our trial judge) for a settlement conference. This judge had asked both sides for settlement conference briefs. In my brief, I had cited to a leading treatise in the subject area. At the mediation, the judge opened this book to find the citation and acknowledged its application to the case.

What the judge didn't do--at any time--was to lord it over us or even mention that he was in fact a co-author of the text.

Now that's someone who is secure enough to avoid fanfare or self-aggrandizement; the very definition of humility.

Here's part 1 (from another context): http://tiny.cc/ywg9m

Labels: