Wittgenstein: A Feminist Interpretation (2004), and of several articles in epistemology, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of mind and language, and on Nietzsche. Her current work lies at the intersection of ethics, the philosophy of language, and epistemology with a focus on epistemic vice, silencing, prejudice, and ignorance.
Tanesini applied the “Page 99 Test” to her latest book, The Mismeasure of the Self: A Study in Vice Epistemology, and she reported the following:
Page 99 of the book offers an initial characterisation of superbia as a vice based on a defensive form of self-esteem. It describes the behaviours characteristic of this vice. It focuses primarily on the example of a prominent member of an audience responds to a speaker’s talk by saying that they do not understand it. That statement is not an expression of modesty and a request for help. Instead, it serves to diminish the speaker by implying that their talk was unintelligible. It does so in a way that makes it hard for the speaker to defend their talk.Visit Alessandra Tanesini's website and blog.
The discussion of superbia and other forms of arrogance is a crucial feature of the book. It is uncanny that the topic is first discussed in some depth starting on page 99.
I like to think that one of the strengths of the book lies in its detailed descriptions of some of the behaviours and emotional orientations characteristics of vicious character traits. Page 99 begins to do this for the vice of superbia which consists in an evaluation of the self for its worth that wholly depends on feeling superior to other people. In the subsequent pages I discuss these feelings of superiority and explain why arrogant individuals who typify superbia are prone to anger when their sense of entitlement is challenged. Subsequent pages subject other vices including narcissism, vanity and obsequiousness to similar detailed scrutiny.
--Marshal Zeringue
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