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Hubris

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For the album, seeHubris (album).
"Arrogance" redirects here. For other uses, seeArrogance (disambiguation).

Hubris(/ˈhjuːbrɪs/;fromAncient Greekὕβρις(húbris)'pride, insolence, outrage'), or less frequentlyhybris(/ˈhaɪbrɪs/),[1]describes a personality quality of extreme or excessivepride[2]or dangerousoverconfidenceandcomplacency,[3]often in combination with (or synonymous with)arrogance.[4]The termarrogancecomes from the Latinadrogare,meaning "to feel that one has a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people". Toarrogatemeans "to claim or seize without justification... To make undue claims to having",[5]or "to claim or seize without right... to ascribe or attribute without reason".[6]The termpretensionis also associated with the termhubris,but is not synonymous with it.[7][need quotation to verify]

According to studies, hubris, arrogance, and pretension are related to the need for victory (even if it does not always mean winning) instead of reconciliation, which "friendly" groups might promote.[8]Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than a group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer collateral consequences from wrongful acts. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments, or capabilities. The adjectival form of the nounhubris/hybrisishubristic/hybristic.[1]

The termhubrisoriginated inAncient Greek,[9]where it had several different meanings depending on the context. In legal usage, it meant assault or sexual crimes and theft of public property,[10]and in religious usage it meantemulationof divinity or transgression against a god.[11]

Ancient Greek origin[edit]

Inancient Greek,hubrisreferred to "outrage": actions that violated natural order, or which shamed and humiliated the victim, sometimes for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser.

Mythological usage[edit]

Black-figure pottery(550 BC) depictingPrometheusserving his sentence, tied to a column

HesiodandAeschylusused the word "hubris" to describe transgressions against the gods.[11]A common way that hubris was committed was when a mortal claimed to be better than a god in a particular skill or attribute. Claims like these were rarely left unpunished, and soArachne,a talented young weaver, was transformed into a spider when she said that her skills exceeded those of the goddessAthena,even though her claim was true. Additional examples includeIcarus,Phaethon,Salmoneus,Niobe,Cassiopeia,Tantalus,andTereus.[12]

The goddessHybrisis described in theEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Editionas having "insolent encroachment upon the rights of others".[13]

These events were not limited to myth, and certain figures in history were considered to have been punished for committing hubris through their arrogance. One such person was kingXerxesas portrayed in Aeschylus's playThe Persians,and who allegedly threw chains tobind the Hellespontsea as punishment for daring to destroy his fleet.[citation needed]

What is common in all of these examples is the breaching of limits, as the Greeks believed that theFates(Μοῖραι) had assigned each being with a particular area of freedom, an area that even the gods could not breach.[14]

Legal usage[edit]

Inancient Athens,hubris was defined as the use of violence to shame the victim (this sense of hubris could also characterize rape).[15]In legal terms, hubristic violations of the law included what might today be termedassault-and-battery,sexual crimes, or the theft of public or sacred property. In some contexts, the term had a sexual connotation.[9]Shame was frequently reflected upon the perpetrator, as well.[16]

Crucial to this definition are the ancient Greek concepts ofhonour(τιμή,timē) and shame (αἰδώς,aidōs). The concept of honour included not only the exaltation of the one receiving honour, but also the shaming of the one overcome by the act of hubris. This concept of honour is akin to azero-sumgame.Rush Rehmsimplifies this definition of hubris to the contemporary concept of "insolence, contempt, and excessive violence".[17]

Two well-known cases are found in the speeches ofDemosthenes,a prominent statesman and orator in ancientGreece.These two examples occurred when firstMidiaspunched Demosthenes in the face in the theatre (Against Midias), and second when (inAgainst Conon) a defendant allegedly assaulted a man and crowed over the victim. Yet another example of hubris appears inAeschines'Against Timarchus,where the defendant, Timarchus, is accused of breaking the law of hubris by submitting himself toprostitutionand anal intercourse. Aeschines brought this suit against Timarchus to bar him from the rights of political office and his case succeeded.[10]Aristotledefined hubris as shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to the committer or might happen to the committer, but merely for that committer's own gratification:

to cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: naive men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater.[18][19][20][21]

Early Christianity[edit]

Illustration forJohn Milton'sParadise LostbyGustave Doré(1866). The spiritual descent ofLuciferintoSatan,one of the most famous examples of hubris.

In theSeptuagint,the "hubris isoverweeningpride,superciliousnessor arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution ornemesis".The wordhubrisas used in theNew Testamentparallels the Hebrew wordpesha,meaning "transgression". It represents a pride that "makes a man defy God", sometimes to the degree that he considers himself an equal.[22]

Modern usage[edit]

In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride combined with arrogance.[4]Hubris is also referred to as "pride that blinds" because it often causes a committer of hubris to act in foolish ways that belie common sense.[23]

Hubris has also been presented as a positive trait:Larry Wallpromoted "the three great virtues of aprogrammer:laziness,impatience,andhubris".[24]

Arrogance[edit]

Look uparrogancein Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

TheOxford English Dictionarydefines "arrogance" in terms of "high or inflated opinion of one's own abilities, importance, etc., that gives rise to presumption or excessive self-confidence, or to a feeling or attitude of being superior to others [...]."[25]Adrian Davies sees arrogance as more generic and less severe than hubris.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ab"hybris".CollinsDictionary.HarperCollins.
  2. ^"Examples and Definition of Hubris in Literature".Literary Devices.2020-12-01.Retrieved2021-04-23.
  3. ^"hubris".Merriam-Webster Dictionary.Retrieved2016-04-22.
  4. ^abPicone, P. M.; Dagnino, G. B.; Minà, A. (2014). "The origin of failure: A multidisciplinary appraisal of the hubris hypothesis and proposed research agenda".Academy of Management Perspectives.28(4): 447–468.doi:10.5465/amp.2012.0177.
  5. ^Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, p. 63, G. & C. Merriam Company (8th ed. 1976).
  6. ^Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, p. 77 (2d Coll. ed. 1978).
  7. ^Yasmin (2019-06-07)."O que é uma pessoa arrogante? Por que evitar a arrogância?".Definição.net(in Brazilian Portuguese).Retrieved2020-04-16.
  8. ^"What Makes the Arrogant Person So Arrogant?".Psychology Today.Retrieved2020-04-16.
  9. ^abDavid Cohen, "Law, society and homosexuality or hermaphrodity in Classical Athens" inStudies in ancient Greek and Roman societyByRobin Osborne;p. 64
  10. ^abAeschines "Against Timarchus" from Thomas K. Hubbard'sHomosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents[ISBN missing][page needed]
  11. ^abThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica,"Hubris",Encyclopaedia Britannica
  12. ^Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica (2010).Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology.Infobase Publishing.ISBN978-1438126395.
  13. ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Themis".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 758.
  14. ^Cornelius Castoriadis.Ce qui fait la Grèce, tome 1: D'Homère à Héraclite, chapitre V. Editeur: Seuil (9 mars 2004).
  15. ^"Hubris".Encyclopædia Britannica.Retrieved21 April2016.
  16. ^Cartledge;Paul Millett(2003).Nomos: Essays in Athenian Law, Politics and Society.Cambridge University Press.p. 123.ISBN978-0521522090.Retrieved2011-11-14.
  17. ^Rehm, Rush(2014).Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy in the Modern World.A&C Black. p. 75.ISBN978-1472502339.Retrieved2 October2018– via Google Books.
  18. ^Aristotle,Rhetoric1378b.
  19. ^Cohen, David (1995).Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens.Cambridge University Press.p. 145.ISBN0521388376.RetrievedMarch 6,2016.
  20. ^Ludwig, Paul W. (2002).Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory.Cambridge University Press.p. 178.ISBN1139434179.RetrievedMarch 6,2016.
  21. ^Skof, Lenart; Hawke, Shé M. (2021).Shame, Gender Violence, and Ethics: Terrors of Injustice.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-1793604682.
  22. ^Stanley J. Grenz,Theology for the Community of God,Pub: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000 – "The Greek wordhubris,which occurs occasionally in the New Testament (e.g., Acts 27:10, 21; 2 Cor.12:10). parallels the Hebrewpasha.William Barclay offers a helpful definition of the term.Hubris,he writes, 'is mingled pride and cruelty.Hubrisis the pride which makes a man defy God, and the arrogant contempt which makes him trample on the hearts of his fellow men.' [...] Hence, it is the forgetting of personal creatureliness and the attempt to be equal with God. "
  23. ^Hollow, Matthew (2014)."The 1920 Farrow's Bank Failure: A Case of Managerial Hubris".Journal of Management History.20(2). Durham University: 164–178.doi:10.1108/JMH-11-2012-0071.RetrievedOctober 1,2014.
  24. ^ Wall, Larry;Schwartz, Randal L.;Christiansen, Tom;Potter, Stephen (1991).Wall, Larry;Talbot, Steve (eds.).Programming Perl.Unix Programming (2 ed.). O'Reilly & Associates (published 1996). p. xiii.ISBN978-1565921498.Retrieved22 August2020.We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a programmer:laziness,impatience,andhubris.
  25. ^"arrogance".Oxford English Dictionary(Online ed.).Oxford University Press.(Subscription orparticipating institution membershiprequired.)
  26. ^ Davies, Adrian (2011). "How Can Human Nature and Corporate Governance Be Reconciled?".The Globalisation of Corporate Governance: The Challenge of Clashing Cultures(reprint ed.). London: Routledge (published 2016). p. 68.ISBN978-1317030102.Retrieved22 August2020.[...] hubris – a form of overweening pride and arrogance. [...] In modern usage hubris is an extreme form of arrogance, often in the face of facts [...].

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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