Pride, Humility, & Emotion

[Maleficus]

I got into a friendly arguement at school today and my friend said that you cannot be both proud and humble at the same time. My response to this was of course you can. It seems to me that you can still be inwardly proud of your accomplishments and abilities without being arrogant and boastful. He insisted that this was not so and you can not be truly humble and proud at the same time.

Humility, to me, is when you want to make a sacrifice moreso than not wanting to make the sacrifice. Even if you really did want the object or to say look at what i did but didn't, its still being humble.

He still insisted they were the same thing and couldny really give any objection just went off of the "I'm right" arguement.

Next, we some how got on the topic of emotion and i stated that you cannot describe emotions without using another emotion. Once again he said that i was wrong and that emotions were chemicals in the body. I said that the chemicals were the by products of you experiencing the emotion and that they are not actually the emotion.

Anyway just wanted some general thoughts on this

 

[vi edit]

It's all a matter of extremes. You can be both humble and proud, just not too much of one or the other. It also depends on the semantics of the word "proud". It can have both a good and a bad conotation.

 

[KingNothing]

I think you can be proud and act humble, like you said. I guess one would have to define what "truly" humble or proud meant. Humility, to me, is when you realize that you are not the dog's bollocks in anything and don't be condescending towards people around you who aren't as good at X as you are.

Dunno about the emotions thing.

 

[sandorski]

The Pride/Humility thing is an interesting discussion.

For example: In the Bible there is a saying, "Pride goeth before the Fall." Now this statement is generally interpreted 2 ways.

1) When people get proud, then they fall
2) When people lose their pride, then they fall
(Falling being, conqeured, defeated, etc)

For various reasons I believe that the correct interpretation is 1.

I think Vi_edit summed it up fairly well, it's really a matter of extremes. One(or many) could look at something(often a political, social, or communal structure re: Nationalism) they have made and say, "I(we) have made a good thing." this is good or ok, but if one(or many) look at something they've made and say, "We are invincible!" those are famous last words. The difference betweeen the 2 statements is that statement 1 is based on a real existing thing, while statement 2 is a fantasy and based on nothing but one's(many) Pride.

Again speaking from what I interpret to be the Biblical POV on Pride/Humilty, the 2 have an impact on people(s). The Proud(overly) become inflexible, always thinking(reasoning) from a rigid view. The Humble, however, recognize that they may be wrong or that someone else might have valuable input. This distinction is, IMO, the perfect example of the difference between the 2(though again at a certain extreme), and most applicable to most of us here.

As for Emotions, I'll let science deal with the Chemical first/second issue, cause I don't know and don't really care. I think it's easier to describe an emotion with another emotion, but not necessary, poets/artists have been doing it without for millenia.