Pride and Vanity?

Question

Is pride just a socially acceptable form of vanity?

For instance if i threw £10,000 into a fire and said it was yours if you pulled it out with your hands, I'm sure your answer to what you would do would change considerably if your actions were to be known or never known.

Your pride, or in my opinion vanity, would stop you if people were to find out , but not so if it were to be never known.

Therefore your appearance in front of people is the only barrier to your taking the money. And worrying about your appearance in public not vanity?

Answer 1

Yes, very smart. We all have an ego and to make objective analysis you have to realize that and estimate in how far your ego, pride, vanity whatever you want to call it interfere with your ability to make critical judgments. A common mistake of idealists is to try to suppress the ego or deny the importance. Because that will never succeed totally it will lead to a blind spot in your critical thinking abilities instead of an asset.