The Capital Vices and Pride

"The capital vices are those which give rise to others, especially by way of final cause" (Thomas Aquinas).

Vices are in our power because the value-judgments which form and reinforce them are in our power.

A vice is a firmly held false belief of the value of something.

Here are some simple, and certainly not final, Stoic definitions of the "capital vices" and the vice of pride:

The vice of gluttony is the firmly held belief that food and drink are good.

The vice of lust is the firmly held belief that sexual pleasure is good.

The vice of avarice is the firmly held belief that money and possessions are good.

The vice of anger is the firmly held belief that injustice committed against us or others is bad, joined with the firmly held belief that punishment of such an injustice is good.

The vice of envy is the firmly held belief that the excellence or superiority of another is bad.

The vice of sloth is the firmly held belief that activity and effort are bad.

The vice of vainglory is the firmly held belief that a show, or image, of excellence is good.

The vice of pride is the firmly held belief that excellences, not in our power, are good.

A Psychology of Sin

Pride is the common root of the capital vices (DeYoung, Seven Deadly Sins).

"Pride taken as the universal motive for sin is derived from Gregory the Great's notion of the seven capital vices. Gregory's schema takes as its main task the explanation of how sin begins and spreads. Capital vices are those which are the principle or director of other vices, vices which in turn have consequences of further vice, which Gregory calls the "daughters" of that particular vice. Gregory's model for organizing the vices at first seems only to have a minor role in Aquinas's account. But as Aquinas discusses the various vices, essentially defining them in Aristotelian terms, he incorporates Gregory's version and his notion of the "daughters" of each of the capital vices. Aquinas also uses Gregory's classification under the subject of causes of sin, insofar as one sin begets another. It serves, as does Aquinas's analysis of intention, as a psychology of sin, as an instrument for self -examination. The assumption of such an account is, I think, that the individual knows (or should know) the truth about his actions and effects and can and should be his own worst accuser. On Aquinas 's view, the problem is not ignorance but willful turning from self-knowledge and to lesser goods" (Sweeney, pg. 164).

Distrust of God and pride combine to motivate us to try to obtain happiness through the possession or avoidance of externals.

Glittering Vices: The Misguided Pursuit of Happiness

Irrational Strategies for Obtaining Happiness

A Brief Theory of Bad Character

Rebecca DeYoung (2009). Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

Glittering Vices: Introduction - Rebecca DeYoung.

Eileen Sweeney (2002). "Vice and Sin (Ia IIae, qq. 71-89)" The Ethics of Aquinas. Ed. Stephen J. Pope. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown UP.

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