Rhetoric

​What kinds of things people are ashamed of and unabashed about, and towards whom, and in what state of mind, will be clear from the following.

​Let shame, then, be a certain pain or agitation concerning those of evils which appear to lead to loss of reputation, whether present, past, or future; and unabashedness a certain slighting and indifference concerning these same things.

​If indeed shame is what has been defined, it is necessary to feel shame at such of evils as appear to be shameful either to oneself or to those for whom one cares; and such things are all those actions which arise from vice, for example, throwing away one’s shield or fleeing (for this is from cowardice), and withholding a deposit (for this is from injustice).

​and having sexual relations with whom one ought not, or where one ought not, or when one ought not (for this is from licentiousness);

​and making profit from small or shameful sources, or from the powerless, such as the poor or the dead, whence also the proverb ‘to take from a corpse’ (for this is from sordid greed and illiberality);

​and not helping with money when one is able, or helping less than one can; and being helped by those who are less well-off; ​and borrowing when one will seem to be begging, and begging when one should demand back, and demanding back when one should beg, and praising something in a way that will seem like begging, and doing so no less even after failing; for all these are signs of illiberality. ​And praising people to their face is a sign of flattery, as is overpraising their good qualities and glossing over their bad ones, and showing excessive grief in the presence of someone who is grieving, and all other such things; for they are signs of flattery.

​And not enduring labors which older people or those who live in luxury or those in higher authority or, in general, those who are weaker endure; for all these are signs of effeminacy.

​And receiving benefits from another, and doing so often, and reproaching someone for a benefit one has done them; for all these are signs of smallness of soul and meanness.

​And talking about oneself all the time and making professions, and claiming other people’s things as one’s own; for this is from boastfulness. Likewise, the works and signs and similar things arising from each of the other vices of character; for they are shameful and shameless.

​And in addition to these, not to share in the good things which everyone, or all equals, or most of them, share in (and by equals I mean fellow-countrymen, citizens, contemporaries, relatives, and in general those on an equal footing); for it is already shameful not to share in, for example, education to a certain degree, and in other things likewise. And all these things are more so if it appears to be through oneself; for thus they are already more from vice, if one is oneself the cause of past, present, or future disadvantages.

​And in suffering, having suffered, or being about to suffer such things as bring dishonor and reproach, people feel shame; and these are things that lead to submission of the body or to shameful deeds, among which is being outraged. And some of these pertain to licentiousness, whether voluntary or involuntary, and others to violence, being involuntary; for enduring them and not defending oneself is from unmanliness or cowardice. These, then, and such as these are the things about which people feel shame.

​Since shame is a mental image concerning loss of reputation, and for its own sake rather than for its consequences, and since no one cares about reputation except on account of those who form opinions, it is necessary to feel shame before those for whom one has regard.

​And one has regard for those who admire them, and those whom they admire, and those by whom they wish to be admired, and those with whom they compete, and those whose opinion they do not despise.

​Now they wish to be admired by, and they admire, those who possess some of the valued goods, or those from whom they happen to be in great need of something which the latter have in their power to give, as, for example, lovers.