Pride In Aristotle's Most Privileged Man

Aristotle opens his chapter on proper pride by stating that pride seems even from its name to be concerned with great things. The first question to be answered is to what sort of great things is pride concerned with. A proud man is one who thinks of himself as worthy of great things and indeed he actually is worthy of them. A man who thinks of himself as worthy of great things and is actually not is vain and this is the excess of proper pride. While the man who thinks himself worthy of less than he really is unduly humble and is the defect of proper pride. The proud man is thought to be extreme in the respect of the greatness of his claim, but a mean in respect of the rightness of them because he claims that which is in accordance to his merits.
Pride then is concerned with the rightness of desert. It is not so much concerned with the claim for deserts but the worthiness of them. Deserts are relative to external goods, the greatest of these external goods being honors. Therefore, honors and dishonors are the objects of which the proud man is concerned with. Since the proud man deserves the most he must truly be good.
According to Aristotle greatness in every virtue would seem to be characteristic of a proud man. We wouldn't think of a coward as a proud man. Nor would we think of criminals as proud men. And really they couldn't be truly proud men because they could not be worthy of honor if they are bad, because honor is the prize of virtue and it is given to the good. Pride seems to be a crown of virtues for it makes them greater and is not found without them. Aristotle presents a list of characteristics of the proud man. The proud man will seek, with moderation, wealth and power as well as all good or evil fortune. No matter what happens, good or bad, he will neither be over-joyed by good nor over-pained by evil. Good fortune is also thought to contribute to pride. Men who are born into good fortune as well as men who enjoy power or wealth are thought to be worthy of honor because of their superior position. The truth is that the good man alone is to be honored but he who has both advantages is thought to be more worthy of honor. The proud man will not run towards danger nor does he like danger but is willing to face danger even if it means endangering his own life because he knows that there are conditions on which life is not worth
having. The proud man is willing to give benefits and is ashamed of receiving them. When he does receive benefits he is more likely to give greater benefits than he received to not only repay the debt but so that the receiver incurs a debt to him. A proud man will ask for nothing or hardly anything and he will be a man of great and notable deeds. He is to speak openly and truthfully. His life must not revolve around another. A proud man is not to be mindful of wrongs; rather he is to overlook them. Aristotle continues with more of a physical description of a proud man saying that he is to have a deep voice and a level of utterance. This is given as the description of proper pride. Anyone that falls short is unduly humble and anyone who exceeds is vain. But neither of the two are thought to be bad, just mistaken. Aristotle states that undue humility is the worse of the two and is more opposed to pride than vanity. Pride on the grand scale is concerned with honor. The proud man is a virtuous man concerned with obtaining honor.