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Chris Provis (2017) has discussed Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean and its counterpart in Confucianism. The Doctrine of the Mean informs an agent that ‘acting as a virtuous person will often be constituted by avoidance of choosing excess or deficiency’ (Provis, 2017, p. 118). Indeed, Provis (2017) argues against any act ‘oriented towards maximisation’ (p. 127). Provis’s (2017) focus is the encounter ‘between European and East Asian ethical traditions’ (p. 116). Our chapter is a response to Provis (2017). We respond to Provis (2017) by exploring a debate amongst Jewish scholars which originated in North Africa. Some of these scholars advocated Aristotle’s Mean. But others advocated forsaking that Mean and pursuing the extreme.

The authors agree with Miravalle (2017) that ‘communications technology has brought with it a radical challenge to the virtue of modesty’ (p. 173). Because of the normalisation of online boasting, it is necessary for students, who are or soon will be employed, to understand the implications of posting their successes on social media. After discussing the pervasiveness of boastful posts and reviewing the research indicating the inverse association between individuals’ routine exposure to posts depicting the curated lives and accomplishments of friends and acquaintances and their emotional well-being, we explore what the virtue of modesty entails. Then, the authors discuss how they have raised their students’ awareness that modesty matters, clarified for them what it is, and given them techniques to help them work towards it.