À l’occasion des midis de l’éthique du CRÉ, Pablo Gilabert offrira une présentation intitulée « Self-Esteem and Social Competition”.

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Résumé

This paper explores the relations between self-esteem and social competition. Self-esteem is a very important good and social competition is a widespread phenomenon. They are commonly linked, as people often seek self-esteem through success in competition. Although competition in fact generates valuable consequences and can to some extent foster self-esteem, empirical research suggests that competition has a strong tendency to undermine self-esteem. To be sure, competition is not the source of all problematic deficits in self-esteem, and it can arise for goods other than self-esteem. But the relation between competition and access to self-esteem is still significant, and it is worth asking how we might foster a desirable distribution of the latter in the face of difficulties created by the former. That is the question addressed in this paper. I identify nine mechanisms that support individuals’ self-esteem and impose limits on competition. I offer justifications of these mechanisms through prudential and moral arguments that apply to both interpersonal and sociopolitical contexts. I focus, in particular, on the challenges faced by people in their practices of work. The approach I propose neither recommends self-denial nor the uncritical celebration of the rat race.