
The most exciting thing about her steps, through, was not the dribbling. It was the look of extraordinary pride that she expressed on her face, the quick little screams of joy that stood in for "I did it, I did it!" For the last hour, well after her achievements, she hasn't stopped smiling and calling out. It seemed a good time to tell her about Peter Sloterdijk's valorization of thumos (pride, heart, honor) over eros (love, desire) in some of his most recent work.
Much of modern and post-modern philosophy is about desire: Hegel, Freud, Lacan, Zizek... lots of the people I write about in this blog. Sloterdijk, however, as I told Helena, thinks that this emphasis avoids something that the Greeks considered to be a much less ambiguous value: thumos. Pride and the love of honor, the desire for the respect of others, motivated the Greeks to do heroic things, and Sloterdijk sees it also behind George Soros or Bill Gates's immense charitable foundations. But I didn't tell Helena about the supposed political benefits of pride. I concentrated on the feeling she was expressing.
Thumos lies at the root of "enthusiasm" (to be filled with pride or honor), and it is something that I love to see in Helena. She isn't ashamed of her pride, as many of us learn to be; when she does something well, it makes her happy, and she wants it to make others happy, as well. The point isn't to inspire the envy of others (as is often true of too many of our motivations), but just to be excited and proud of herself.
And today, as she stumbled across the floor, dribbling a little ball, she deserved her thumos. And she makes me enthusiastic along with her.

Thumos Up!
ReplyDeleteWalking at nine months!!! And starting to talk!!! Will we even recognize her in just a few short months!? So lovely to remember this blog and find it. The pictures bring you all a little closer. Best to the whole beautiful family - J, A & D
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