Fools be not proud
Magnanimity.
John Donne famously told Death not to be proud; but according to one definition of pride, Death could justifiably be proud, because what is not to say that Death doesn't have a good and noble character? That is, goodness and nobility are necessary prerequisites for pride. A proud person is moderately pleased when they are praised by their peers, but not remotely interested when they're praised by lesser mortals or for lesser actions.
In other words, pride is not one of the Seven Deadly Sins of snivelling Christian tradition, but a kind of virtue, albeit one that's limited to a small number of allegedly deserving people. The idea comes from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
Is pride such a bad thing? If I've achieved something difficult, for example, is it wrong to be proud of my achievement or of myself for achieving it? Or should I only be proud of the thing achieved and let others be proud of me for my achievement? What if there's no one to be proud of me? Or what if the thing I do is only known to me? I don't always do things that I want to blaze abroad.
But if we're going to condemn pride, then it should be for being proud of what it not worthy of such adulation. I'm sure Hitler, Stalin, Mao and every other deranged mass murderer in history was proud of what they'd achieved in spite of the cost in human lives. Nothing to be proud of there.
John Donne famously told Death not to be proud; but according to one definition of pride, Death could justifiably be proud, because what is not to say that Death doesn't have a good and noble character? That is, goodness and nobility are necessary prerequisites for pride. A proud person is moderately pleased when they are praised by their peers, but not remotely interested when they're praised by lesser mortals or for lesser actions.
In other words, pride is not one of the Seven Deadly Sins of snivelling Christian tradition, but a kind of virtue, albeit one that's limited to a small number of allegedly deserving people. The idea comes from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
Is pride such a bad thing? If I've achieved something difficult, for example, is it wrong to be proud of my achievement or of myself for achieving it? Or should I only be proud of the thing achieved and let others be proud of me for my achievement? What if there's no one to be proud of me? Or what if the thing I do is only known to me? I don't always do things that I want to blaze abroad.
But if we're going to condemn pride, then it should be for being proud of what it not worthy of such adulation. I'm sure Hitler, Stalin, Mao and every other deranged mass murderer in history was proud of what they'd achieved in spite of the cost in human lives. Nothing to be proud of there.
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