In an essay on the subject, Argentine philosopher Diana Cohen Agrest analyzes what this feeling is and what social networks have made of it. The sexual and the social
“Shame must change sides,” said Gisèle Pelicot, the victim of a husband who drugged her for ten years and had her raped by dozens of men. And that phrase is a banner, a sign of her dignity and her lucidity. But what is shame? A moral sentiment? The gaze of others? Having been caught in something that, after all, we recognize as degrading?
“Once expelled from the earthly paradise, Adam and Eve felt, for the first time, shame. What truth had been revealed to them by the serpent? Why did they have to weave fig leaves together in order to cover their sex organs? Why would God censure their sexuality when the reproductive organs were the work of the Creator and as such, 'God saw that they were good'?”
Thus, with that force, with that incisive level of reflection, begins this essay by the Argentine philosopher. Diana Cohen Agrest. It is entitled Shame: The Narcissistic Defeat and can now be downloaded for free from BajaLibros, within the Philosophy Time collection.
And continues: "What does this divine gaze condemning original sin symbolize, a gaze that, perhaps because of its omnipresence, embodies all gazes? And what does it say about us, the creators of the myth of original innocence?
Cohen Agrest In this text, he explains how modesty was established in the world from the moment Adam and Eve covered their genitals with fig leaves. The questions that follow are: What does that condemning look say about us?Is it the same to feel modesty, what shame? And proposes: “Modesty precedes misconduct or infamy, shame arises after misconduct or infamy".
We are vulnerable to the gaze of others, but we also feel shame when others do. We feel ashamed when we put our self-esteem or our privacy at risk. So, is it media culture that is causing the decline of the role of shame? And what about politics: lost his shame?
PhD in Philosophy from the UBA and Master in Bioethics from the Monash University of AustraliaCohen Agrest devoted himself to issues of moral philosophy and ethics, taught and researched at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA, and is an external researcher at UNAM in Mexico.
Since the murder of her son Ezequiel in 2011, she has been involved in the situation of victims in Argentina and the shortcomings of the judicial system. On her initiative, the association Usina de Justicia was created, which assists the families of victims of homicides and femicides.
He wrote a dozen books: Perpetual absence. Insecurity and the traps of (in)justice, Neither beasts nor gods. Thirteen essays on human fragility, What do people who don't think like me think? 10 ethical controversies, By one's own hand. A study on suicidal practices and ethical intelligence for everyday life, Spinoza: a cartography of ethics y Suicide: impossible desire (or the paradox of voluntary death in Baruch Spinoza), among others.
She is a journalist and a frequent voice in the media. In 2009, she received the UBA Award for the Dissemination of Educational Content in National Media. In 2016, she received the Konex Platinum Award in “Ethics”, the highest award given in each specialty to the leading exponents of the last decade.
The shame This is one of those essential books for rethinking history, culture, but above all our daily current affairs. It is also a good example of the way in which Cohen Agrest illuminates the darkest areas of thought.
Source: INFOBAE