Imposter Syndrome as Recalcitrant Emotion
Dr. Rebecca Stangl
Professor of Philosophy
University of Virginia
Dr. Stangl specializes in contemporary ethical theory, especially virtue ethics, and is the author of Neither Heroes Nor Saints: Ordinary Virtue, Extraordinary Virtue, and Self-Cultivation (from Oxford University Press). Her recent work has also appeared in such journals as Ethics, Philosophical Quarterly, and The Hastings Center Report, as well as several edited collections from Oxford University Press.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2025
4:00PM
BARNINI (LL12) HARKINS HALL
Confessions of suffering from Imposter Syndrome have become commonplace. But what exactly is Imposter Syndrome? While differing in important respects, recent philosophical analyses nonetheless agree that it is an essentially doxastic phenomenon. Sufferers falsely believe they are incompetent – or at least lack a true belief in their competence – even in the face of seemingly compelling evidence to the contrary. In this essay, I challenge this emerging consensus. I argue that unfitting shame, rather than false (or lacking) belief, is at the heart of at least some varieties of Imposter Syndrome. Such an analysis solves a puzzle arising from the fact that Imposter Syndrome is almost always self-diagnosed, a puzzle which has so far been unappreciated in the literature and whose solution is incompatible with a doxastic account.
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