Philosophical views of humilityKant is among the first philosophers to view conception of humility as “that meta-attitude which constitutes the moral agent’s proper perspective on himself as a dependent and corrupt but capable and dignified rational agent”.[citation needed] Kant’s notion of humility is that humility is a virtue, and indeed a central virtue.[citation needed]
Mahatma Gandhi is attributed as suggesting that attempting to sustain truth without humility is doomed to cause it to become instead an “arrogant caricature” of truth.[4][5]
Some other schools of thought, such as Ayn Rands Objectivism, have seen self-abasement as antithetical to morality.
Humility is considered an important virtue in taoism. The following quote describes how a wise person should see his accomplishments, according to the Tao Te Ching (77.4)
[a wise person] acts without claiming the results as his; he achieves his merit and does not rest (arrogantly) in it: — he does not wish to display his superiority.
Nietzsche wrote of humility (not to speak of patience, wisdom, and any other virtue lauded widely by the masses) as a weakness, a false virtue which concealed the frailties and hidden crookedness in its holder.
His idealized ubermensch would be more apt to roam around unfettered by pretensions of humility, proud of his stature and power, but not reveling idly in it, and certainly not displaying hubris.