By Tara Smith
Though Aristotle had praised pride as the crown of the virtues, Ayn Rand’s identification of pride as “moral ambitiousness” marked a major breakthrough in understanding this virtue.
These illuminating lectures intensively explore this insight to unlock a more vivid conception of what pride entails. What exactly does moral ambitiousness refer to? What does pride demand of us? And what does pride deliver—what is its specific value to human life? Since the proud person seeks his own moral perfection, Dr. Smith examines: what such perfection consists of; the dangers of dismissing this ideal; and the usual reasons given for rejecting it.
(MP3 download; 2 hrs., 51 min., with Q & A, 122.57 MB)
This lecture was adapted into a two-part course, "Moral Ambition: Perfection and Pride," available for free at the ARI Campus, on the Ayn Rand University mobile app (iOS and Android), and on the Ayn Rand Institute's YouTube Channel.
