Ruwen Ogien's Philosophical Inquiry into Shame

Philosopher Ruwen Ogien's book "Pourquoi tant de honte ?" (Why So Much Shame?) published by Éditions Pleins Feux continues his analytical investigation into moral emotions. Following his earlier work "La Morale a-t-elle un avenir ?", Ogien employs a conceptual methodology through language analysis to examine shame. The book poses fifty questions ranging from "Can one doubt one's shame?" to "Should one commit suicide if one has been very ashamed or can one just kill all witnesses?" Ogien critically studies shame's physical signs, styles, contexts, and limits. He derives a moral idea of shame from sensitive figures, such as defining shame as "condition of possibility for the emergence of self-awareness" from the film "Adieu au Paradis." The review was written by Christophe Kihm.