Pride - the worst sin according to C.S.Lewis

[The Grand Nudger]

Who, at the same time, and like all who came before or since...preached a religion of fundamental hubris. Wherein the lord of creation is like us and has desires such as our own, wherein all of the cosmos is a backdrop to our story, and wherein two hopped up chimps taking fruit from a dragon spells downfall for all creatures, wherein only the son of man can save life on this planet....someday...after much misery and suffering.

-and then...then, we get into the usual earthly shit.......If we're going to seriously consider pride as derogatory along with it's relationship to the sacred, ofc.

[Belacqua]

I think that's potentially a good description of pride—a standard people believe they deserve to have relative to others. And a big part of Christianity has to do with doing away with such standards. To be willing to cross group boundaries, especially ones you feel are beneath you. I remember someone saying once (maybe it was CS Lewis himself), that the most powerful image in Christianity wasn't the cross, but Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.

Yes, I think this is exactly what Christians mean when they say pride is a sin. 

To refrain from demanding special treatment, and to value even those whom we could easily judge to be inferior.

[The Grand Nudger]

Is anyone going to tell that to their loyalty checking god?

[The Architect Of Fate]

Is anyone going to tell that to their loyalty checking god?

Or address the parts of the bible where its characters didn't do what is suggested above.

[Belacqua]

Just to confuse things further, some modern translators use the word "pride" to translate Aristotle's term "megalopsyche."

Literally, as you can see, it just means "great-souled." "Pride" is an extremely misleading translation. Other books translate it as "magnanimous," which is the exact Latin equivalent, but this word too has a different meaning in modern English. The modern English means something closer to "generous." A megalopsyche person will definitely be magnanimous, but they're not equivalent words.

Megalopsychia is not an attitude, as modern pride is. It is a condition. And it's something you have to be born into, and very lucky to get. Basically Aristotle is imagining what it would be like to born with all the luck. It would be a man who is born rich, talented, politically connected, handsome, etc. etc. Just everything an ancient Greek in the polis would want.

Aristotle doesn't so much aspire to make us like these people, as to imagine what a person in this condition would do, and what his responsibilities would be. It's a kind of imaginary limit-case. "If you had it all, what would you do with it?" Many of his answers are surprising.

Anyway, that's just another case when translators' use of the word "pride" can be misleading if we're not careful.

[Silver]

Frankly, having read Mere Christianity and Surprised by Joy, I regard C.S. Lewis as a self-righteous twit and don't give a hoot for what he has to say about anything. 

I only read the book because a high school teacher gifted it to me. I was not impressed by the content.

[AFTT47]

It means that you feel you are more deserving or more important in society than you really are. 

That would be conceit. Pride, objectively, is self-respect and the healthy recognition of one's worth. Pride is a virtue when practiced rationally, but, like other virtues, it can become a vice when carried to excess. Thus pride can become conceit.

Looked at from a non-Christian, utilitarian way, I see it as a mixed bag. I think it is good and useful to take pride in one's accomplishments. But there is so much truth in the Socrates view that the only wisdom is knowing that you know nothing. Regardless of what you have accomplished, there is so much you don't[ know, so many ways you are inferior. It's not pessimistic. It just grounds you in reality.

Your contributions are valuable but you should stay aware that there is a literal infinity of room left into which you may grow.

[Belacqua]

It just grounds you in reality.

Your contributions are valuable but you should stay aware that there is a literal infinity of room left into which you may grow.

This seems wise to me. And this is the reason why Aristotle and the others hope that we can be realistic in our self-assessments. 

Take pleasure in our good points (which would be called pride in modern English), and stay modest about our less good points.

[Fake Messiah]

That would be conceit. Pride, objectively, is self-respect and the healthy recognition of one's worth. Pride is a virtue when practiced rationally, but, like other virtues, it can become a vice when carried to excess. Thus pride can become conceit.

Looked at from a non-Christian, utilitarian way, I see it as a mixed bag. I think it is good and useful to take pride in one's accomplishments. But there is so much truth in the Socrates view that the only wisdom is knowing that you know nothing. Regardless of what you have accomplished, there is so much you don't[ know, so many ways you are inferior. It's not pessimistic. It just grounds you in reality.

Your contributions are valuable but you should stay aware that there is a literal infinity of room left into which you may grow.

I have an impression that you didn't read the 2nd part of the post where I say that pride is a virtue when practiced rationally, but that it can become a vice when carried to excess. Just like other Gregory's alleged sins.
Thus anger can become rage; envy can become jealousy; gluttony and greed can become what those words connote today; pride can become conceit; lust can become self-gratification at the expense of another; and sloth can become depraved indifference.

[Angrboda]

It means that you feel you are more deserving or more important in society than you really are. 

Yeah, it seems to me that pride exists in direct relationship to others. And as such it can be differentiated from terms like confidence or self-esteem, which exist independently of others.

There's a theory of prejudice in psychology called relative deprivation theory. The premise is simple: Groups become dissatisfied with aspects of their lives relative to other groups. The word relative is important because it doesn't matter whether if you are actually deprived in any objective sense, only whether you feel deprived in relation to other people. Racism and hate groups tend to emerge under such conditions.

I think that's potentially a good description of pride—a standard people believe they deserve to have relative to others. And a big part of Christianity has to do with doing away with such standards. To be willing to cross group boundaries, especially ones you feel are beneath you. I remember someone saying once (maybe it was CS Lewis himself), that the most powerful image in Christianity wasn't the cross, but Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.

It would be a bit creepy though for Christians to wear necklaces with a pair of feet dangling from them.