If there were a verb meaning ‘to believe falsely’, it would not have any significant first person present indicative.
Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, II x
Interesting that there is no significant first person present indicative of self disrespect. Consider, with Moore’s Paradox in mind: ‘I disrespect myself by sitting here, but I am doing it anyway.’
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Considering disrespect”s relation to Moore’s Paradox at issue here, it begs the question, ‘What is the analysis of Moore’s Paradox?’ For given an answer to that, we might have a parallel answer for disrespect.
My stance is that a person’s statements about the truth are indistinguishable from statements of how he or she is going to act. Also, statements about a person’s beliefs are about how that person plans on acting. So Moore’s Paradox breaks down to saying that you are going to act one way but then planning on acting a different way, yielding a contradiction.
This suggests that if you believe that Moore’s Paradox has something to do with predicting how the speaker will act, then the similar form of self-disrespect may likewise be about self-knowledge.
Venturing a tentative opinion, let’s assume that respect has something to do with capabilities. You have to respect the strengths of your enemies; they are capable of fighting back. You have to treat dangerous objects with respect because they can hurt you. You respect people you like because they have done or can do things that are difficult.
Disrespecting someone is to treat that person as incapable when they are not.
Disrespecting yourself would be to treat yourself as incapable when you are not. So in any case that you could say you were disrespecting yourself, you would know you were capable of greater things and yet not changing. Hence it makes sense that there is no first person present indicative of self-disrespect on this analysis.
