Professor Post defends the virtue of modesty
Mary Shuhriemen
Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: News
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Beginning his talk, Post joked that a student of his, seeing the title of the lecture, asked him, "The answer is yes, right?" He also pointed out the picture that was displayed on the posters advertizing the event, saying that he had asked that the depiction of Achilles killing the Amazon queen, Penthesilea, be added for a particular reason. First, because the picture shows the battle of the sexes, and secondly, because according to the myth, Achilles fell in love with Penthesilea as he killed her, not because she submitted to him, but because she was excellent. This distinction, Post said, was important to note and to remember throughout the rest of the lecture.
Post continued that, in a liberal arts university, the question of whether modesty is a virtue is important, for the liberal arts as set up in the ancient world are the studies which make one free. "For the ancients, to be free, you must be strong, excellent," Post said, and added that because of this, those studying the liberal arts must discover virtue, which in Latin means manliness or excellence.
At this point in his lecture, Post distinguished between the two prevalent views between which society appears to be caught. First, there is the scientific view of excellence, which, according to Post, treats excellence and that which is admirable as technical and scientific, not moral, achievement. The excellent man or woman, according to this view, is the "expert," the one who has the ability to master nature with technology. Opposed to this is the fidestic view, as Post called it, which is grounded in faith without the use of reason. This view, Post said, is potentially just as dangerous as the amoral scientific position, for it is in reality a domination of self. "They are both just about power, mastery," he said, adding that ultimately, they are "destructive of virtue."
"Women should be modest because it empowers them," Post quoted a popular conservative argument for modesty which recycles a feminist argument. "But power is not neutral," he countered, saying that in the end, this argument fails to achieve the end for which it is intended. "Feminists say be sexually liberal because that liberates you from custom and tradition," he said, "the conservative counter-argument is that [being sexually liberal] makes women weaker because they are giving up the one thing that men want." So if women are denying men sex, it empowers women. Perhaps, Post conceded, but that does not lead to a good result. This whole conservative argument is problematic because it makes the claim that men and women only want power and that sex is only one of the tools in that quest. This, Post argued, ultimately destroys love. "What kind of man is motivated by this?" he asked, turning to the ladies in the audience, "Virtue for sex?" The concept, he said, is "base and demeaning for a decent man." Also, it is unreasonable to expect it to have any true effect on a base man. "The mediocre and foolish man is left, ladies," Post concluded, emphasizing again that if modesty is the empowerment of women, virtue is only a card in the power game.
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