溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is Loving Myself Selfishness or Virtue?
Is there a right way and a wrong way to love oneself?
The good person ought to be a lover of self.
Aristotle split self-love (philautia) in two. Self-love that grabs money, honor, and pleasure ahead of others deserves blame; but self-love that cultivates the noblest part within — reason and virtue — is the mark of a good person. True self-love is not selfishness but love aimed at one's best self. The question long branched. The Christian tradition made self-love the measure of neighbor-love — "love your neighbor as yourself" — while Pascal warned against self-centeredness: "the self is hateful." Is loving oneself the root of growth or the seed of selfishness? The answer depends on which self one loves.
The more common "love yourself" becomes, the more the real question is: which self are you loving?
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
I live in an age when "love yourself" has become as common as a slogan. Yet Aristotle showed early that some self-love grows you and some ruins you. Love that chases only ease and grabs more than others finally shrinks me, while love that cherishes myself toward a better self, however hard, makes me grow. Whenever I say I love myself, I try quietly to tell whether it is a love that softens me or one that grows me.
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