Abstract

[In front of the Other. Again on Law and modesty] Law and rights have their roots in the Otherness. Modesty (as pudor) is the revelatory feeling of the authentic encounter with the Other. Modesty is a form of subtraction in “relating to” so that an openness to the Other can be maintained: it is a resource of relationship since it implies mutual measuring and respect. Only in the open distance from Otherness the respect for the Other and responsibility for the Other can exist, as a duty guided by compassion in the horizon of the possible being-in-common. Due to the impoverishment of relationality caused by the new digital media, the notion of modesty must be recovered, and in this perspective literary and humanistic cultures assume a central value. We invite, therefore, the reading of Silvio D’Arzo’s short story, Casa d’altri, which allows us to penetrate the feeling of modesty and understand its significance. As we shall see, in the increasing relationship between the two protagonists, the compassion as closeness, even in the permanence of their difference, and the feeling of responsibility for the Other allow the emergence of the measure of a silent justice.