Abstract

The article takes the increased emergence of the term “humility” as an occasion for a phenomenological investigation. For this purpose, humility is not presupposed as a purely Christian attitude, but the focus is on the analysis of fundamental experiences that cause people to behave in a humble manner in the long term. Starting from three exemplary reports of experiences, the phenomenological method is applied step by step and develops a definition of the term. For this purpose, the connection between evaluative statement, feeling and binding validity is central. The fact that the humble person understands himself as powerless, dependent and limited is motivated by the specific character of feelings. In the long run, these can prescribe a binding course of action for the person concerned, which in the long run can enter into cultural ways of life that cannot be limited to a purely religious context.