I was speaking more to how someone acts inside than how someone presents themself. If they believe themself unworthy or unimportant or without merit, they tend not to reject ideas very well and do a lot of equivocating. (Though, I think, all my evidence for that is anecdotal.)
Yes, and that is what I mean when i say you confuse the concepts :) Modesty is perhaps the better term here. Humlilty is modesty in all aspects of life. Compare it with Piety.
Humility means that you don´t overstate your own importance even when you are successful and that you respect others even if they are less intelligent/successful. It is the opposite of arrogance. If you are successful and brawl much you are arrogant, if you are successful and modest/humble, you don´t brawl.
Besides, shouldn´t a person who believe himself unworthy tend to accept ideas that contradict his own original beliefs more easy? E.g. Oh, Dr. Kopernikues claims that the earth ISN`T flat? Well, who am I to come and believe otherwise?
I have this belief that humility is a part of good critical thinking, and that egoism undermines it. I imagine arrogance as a kind of mind-death. But I have no evidence, and no good mechanism by which it might be true. In fact, I know the belief is suspect because I know that I want it to be true — I want to be able to assure myself that this or that intolerable academic will be magically punished with a decreased capacity to do good work. The truth could be the opposite: maybe hubris breeds confidence, and confidence results? After all, some of the most important thinkers in history were insufferable.
Is any link, positive or negative, between arrogance and reasoning too tenuous to be worth entertaining? Is humility a pretty word or a valuable habit? I don't know what I think yet. Do you?