Mindcoolness

Let There Be True Will

  • Blog
    • Philosophy
    • Psychology
    • Ethics
    • Personal Development
  • Book
  • Contact
  • About

Are Pride and Humility Good or Bad? (Affective Ethics)

January 3, 2018 Dom 11 Comments

ethics pride humility

On the Ethics of Pride and Humility

Definitions

Pride is the pleasure you feel when you contemplate your strength, competence, or superiority.

Humility is the pain you feel when you contemplate your weakness, incompetence, or inferiority.

Affective Ethics

According to a utilitarian reading of the above definitions, pride is inherently good (pleasurable) and humility inherently bad (painful). Yet if we look at all their potential consequences on well-being, the picture becomes more complex:

  Pride (internal) Pride (external) Humility (internal) Humility (external)
Positive feeling good and confident seen as influential and inspiring intellectual or moral pride seen as prudent and trustworthy
Negative self-delusion seen as arrogant and irrational feeling weak and inhibited seen as servile and inferior

Internal factors

Ordinarily, when you are proud, you feel good about your power of activity; when you are humble, you feel bad about your lack of power. Yet upon adding the cognitive factor of moral self-evaluation, pride can become delusional (“I’m the best!”), whereas humility can turn into pride (“I’m so humble!”), which too can become delusional.

External factors

Whether your expression of genuine pride is useful in a given situation depends on how it is perceived by the people around: if they are prone to envy, your pride expression will be less useful than if they are prone to admiration. Likewise, the usefulness of your genuine humility expression depends on how others receive it: will they see you as secure, prudent, virtuous, and trustworthy or as meek, spineless, and overly apologetic? However, to the extent that negative perceptions by other people give you valuable feedback to improve yourself, they can also lead to positive consequences.

Conclusion

Pride and humility are not simply good or bad. Rather, their complex effects on well-being depend on

  1. additional cognitive factors rooted in your general self-esteem, moral idiosyncrasy, and cultural value system (e.g., were you raised Catholic?),
  2. the people who see you expressing those emotions (e.g., are they secure about themselves?),
  3. your personal relationships with those people (e.g., have they been liking you thus far?), and
  4. how you handle their judgment of you (e.g., can you use it as constructive moral feedback?).

Read More

  • Is the Ego Useful?
  • The Truth about Pride and Humility
  • Why Pride Will Never Die
  • On True Pride: Is Ego the Enemy?
  • What Is Pride? On the Feeling of Greatness

Please Vote

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Blog emotions, ethics, mindcoolness, mindfulness, pride

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Post

meaning of life stupid question

Newsletter

Please check your inbox to confirm your subscription.

Latest Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcztX6LYqec

The Author

Dom is a European man keenly devoted to the gods of sylvan wisdom. He is also a cognitive scientist and philosopher by training, a data scientist by trade, and a strength athlete and martial artist at heart. [Read more…]

Willpower Condensed

Resources for Personal Growth

Core Concepts

1. Freedom is the degree to which one does one’s True Will.

2. True Will is what one wants to do in a state of mindcoolness.

3. Mindcoolness is the absence of dysfunctional emotions that perturb rational thought and diminish intelligence; more deeply, it is self-knowledge and freedom from egoic identifications.

4. Know thyself, then do what thou wilt.

Copyright © 2021 • Content Disclaimer • Privacy Policy • Affiliate Disclosure • About
Dear reader, this website uses cookies for analytical purposes. We'll assume you're ok with it, but you can opt-out if you wish.
OK Give me more information.
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.