The Decent Society

By Avishai Margalit

“A decent society is one whose institutions do not humiliate

people.”
Layout of the Presentation
• Introduction
• Includes his general views of the idea of a Decent Society
• Reasons as to why he thinks a decent society is a nonhumiliating one
• The Reasons for Feeling Humiliated : A tackle between two extremes
• Anarchism
• “The very existence of governing institutions is a reason for feeling
humiliated”
• Stoicism
• “No governing institutions can provide reasons for feeling humiliated.”
• A compromise between the two extremes
Distinction between a Decent Society and a Civilized
Society
• A civilized society is where the people do not humiliate each other
• Whereas a decent society is where the institutions of the society do not humiliate
the people
• The author is looking at the grander picture where his emphasis is on the setup of
the society as a whole.

A Decent Society is a Nonhumiliating one

• But why should we use a negative definition rather than a positive one?
• We can just say that a decent society is one where the institutions respect the
people.
• Margalit provides three reasons for this: moral, logical and cognitive.
Why a negative definition for a Decent
Society?
• Non-humiliating
• Moral Reason
• We need to reach the threshold where the bad elements are removed before promoting
the good elements.
• Humiliation is a painful evil, while respect is a benefit.
• Logical Reason
• Respect is generally a by-product of certain acts while non-humiliating act is something
that can be understood in isolation.
• Cognitive Reason
• “It is easier to identify humiliating than respectful behaviour”

• He ends the introduction by saying that he is inspired by Orwell’s Socialism

The Definition of Humiliation
• Avishai defines humiliation as “any sort of behavior or condition that
constitutes a sound reason for a person to consider his or her self-
respect injured”
• This is a normative definition as opposed to a psychological one
• The author’s emphasis while giving this definition is on the ‘sound
reasons’ for one to feel that way, regardless of the humiliator’s intent
and/or the actual feeling experienced by a person.
• As opposed to this, the psychological definition is where even though
there might not be sound reasons to feel humiliated, a person still
might end up feeling that way. Here there is a cause for humiliation
but no reason/ justification.
The Propositions on Humiliation
• For the author, “a society is decent if its institutions do not act in ways that
give the people under their authority sound reasons to consider themselves
humiliated”
• Three Views (Two of which will be discussed by Aniket):
• Anarchism
• Any society that proposes to have ruling institutions leads to humiliation
• Stoicism
• No society is capable of humiliating. If self respect is something that we evaluate for ourselves then
someone else’s action should not affect our estimate, and therefore we can never feel humiliated.
• Christian View
• Pride is a sin, and therefore it can be cured by humility.
• According to this view, the humiliation is something like a trial that one has to go through to
become humble.
• Jesus’ experience through Matthew’s gospel is described, and even after so many humiliating
actions, Jesus did not consider himself humiliated.
My Critique and Reflection
• The author’s views are very result and impact oriented.
• For example, the author could have taken an inclusive approach while defining
humiliation by saying that everything that leads to that feeling should come under the
purview.
• But he deliberately chooses a normative definition, because when there are sound
reasons to have their self-respect departed by institutions/humans, then we can
isolate them, and analyse them to prevent them.
• This exercise helps us in creating a decent society.
• By saying that a decent society is a non-humiliating one, the author again
emphasizes on the applicability of this approach in a real world.
• The author’s study of two extremities against each other is a nuanced way to
introduce the elements of humiliation.