Introduction
Pride is the feeling of satisfaction resulting from one’s actions or possessions, or the connection to something or someone. The person experiencing pride believes the action, possession, or connection in question to be desirable and values their being related to it. The word “pride” may be fairly neutral, although in some cases it can be used either as approving or disapproving.
Main text
According to Dillon, “pride can be an effective element of either evaluative self-respect or self-esteem” (par. 68). It might be a result of belonging to a particular group of people respected by the person feeling proud, and of equality with these people. Dillon favorably labels this kind of pride “proper pride”, because as an aspect of self-esteem, it prevents one from acting in a way that is considered to be unworthy (par. 68). To speak about the opposite of pride of this kind, we can use the word “shame”, which in some cases can be interpreted as a sense of being a member of a group of people recognized as contemptible.
The word “pride” can also be used disapprovingly to denote an extremely high opinion about oneself, the quality of being arrogant or conceited (Dillon par. 68). As in the case with “proper pride”, this kind of pride can also be the feeling of belonging to a group of people, but in this case, this is a group of those perceived as strong ones, who use their strength to dissociate from those regarded as weak ones. This type of pride “helps establish and maintain social hierarchies” (Oveis 618). Possible antonyms for the latter meaning of “pride” are humility or modesty. Another possible antonym is the word “compassion” (Oveis 618), although it is important to note that for a compassionate person’s perception there might already exist a kind of hierarchy, an understanding of a group of people towards which the person feels compassionate as having a lower status.
A simple example of the usage of the word “pride” is related to school students. Two groups of students can be encountered at most high schools. One group might be called “high achievers”, the other – “bullies”. Members of the second group might be considered to be practitioners of the second discussed type of pride, i.e. pride which results in establishing social hierarchies. Some of the criteria for such hierarchies, in this case, are physical strength, the ability to protect oneself from jeering, and the ability to jeer at others. Bullies take pride in possessing these qualities and disrespect those who lack them. The other group, “high achievers”, students who try to study hard and receive good grades, could in some cases be regarded as people practicing the first discussed type of pride, the one that, being an aspect of self-respect, prevents them from acting in an unworthy way (i.e. not studying enough and receiving low grades). On the other hand, from our personal experience, we can say that “high achievers” in some cases also practice pride that results in establishing hierarchies by treating students receiving low grades as unintelligent.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, it should be noted that members of both groups in the given examples receive (and promote) satisfaction from being connected to them. Both kinds of students believe satisfying the criteria for being in their group to be desirable, and thus in the usage of both groups the word “pride” is close in meaning to “self-esteem”. On the other hand, in some cases, these two groups of students can perceive each other as opposing, and then the pride of one group carries a negative connotation of arrogance to the other one.
Works Cited
Dillon, Robin S. “Respect.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Spring 2014 ed. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Web. 2015.
Oveis, Christopher, E. J. Horberg and Dacher Keltner. “Compassion, Pride, and Social Intuitions of Self-Other Similarity.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98.4 (2010): 618-630. PDF file. Web. 2015.