Does Aristotle think that pride is a virtue?

Answer 1

Yes, with this definition of the word:

"According to Aristotle, the perfect human specimen was tall, walked with a slow and measured gait, spoke with a low voice, and was extremely honest to the extent of recognizing that he was really something. The greatest virtue according to Aristotle, was pride, to be distinguished from arrogance. We, today, have quite a bit of trouble with the idea of pride. On the one hand, we are told to be proud of our country or proud of our football team or whatever--pride of place and pride of origins and pride of family. On the other hand we are told that pride is the deadliest of all deadly sins. We are also expected not to blow our own horns and tell the world how brilliant we are. At the same time we are encouraged to do so if we do it in a somewhat more restrained manner. Aristotle made no bones about his conviction that the truly great human being is a male of good birth. It never occurred to him that anyone could be a great soul or model of humanity if he came from low class background. That to Aristotle was obvious.

Aristotle based everything on this idea of a hierarchy. As did Plato. For the intelligent and competent, pride is the greatest of all virtues because it is the virtue of one who is honest with himself. The arrogant man would be one who deserves little but claims much. That of course is unacceptable. The humble phony would be one who deserves much but claims little. You might note that in the Christian context this is the way to go. We are encouraged to claim little no matter how much we might secretly think we actually deserve. According to Aristotle this is deception. There are very few truly great men according to Aristotle. I have no idea if he considered himself to be one of them. But the ones who are really great would be those who deserve much and claim much. They are not popular. They despise the adulation of the masses. They would not want to be on the New YorK Times best seller list. They would to write something which is accessible only to a very small elite group of discriminating individuals. According to Aristotle, the great man prefers the company of his peers. He does not want to be praised by those who have no business praising him because they don't understand what he is all about, those who are beneath him.

I am emphasizing this because it is one of a set of ideas which runs like a thread from ancient times through the Middle Ages into modern times. In the Medieval world pride was considered the most deadly of the mortal sins. After the collapse he Roman Empire in the West, we move from the emphasis on the grandeur and nobility of the human being to the grandeur and nobility of God in whose sight even the most elevated of humans is an insignificant worm. A nothing. Hence, for the medieval mindset all pride is false pride. Arrogance. There simply is no such thing as justified pride. On the other hand, Aristotle, at the high point of Greek civilization believes in justified pride. The modern world, beginning with the Renaissance and scholars such as Pico della Mirandola, returns to the Aristotelian way of looking at things, at least to some extent. Once again pride becomes respectable. This is the kind of overall patterns which you should try to remember and take from one class into the next class."