In order to seek values, man must consider himself worthy of enjoying them. In order to fight for his happiness, he
must consider himself worthy of happiness.
The two aspects of self-esteem—self-confidence and self-respect—can be isolated conceptually, but they are
inseparable in a man's psychology. Man makes himself worthy of living by making himself competent to live: by
dedicating his mind to the task of discovering what is true and what is right, and by governing his actions
accordingly. If a man defaults on the responsibility of thought and reason, thus undercutting his competence to live,
he will not retain his sense of worthiness. If he betrays his moral convictions, thus undercutting his sense of
worthiness, he does so by evasion, he commits treason to his own (correct or mistaken) judgment, and thus will not
retain his sense of competence. The root of both aspects of self-esteem is psycho-epistemological.
Such are the nature and causes of man's need of self-esteem.
It must be remembered that self-esteem is a moral appraisal, and morality pertains only to the volitional, to that
which is open to man's choice. An unbreached rationality—i.e., an unbreached determination to use one's mind to
the fullest extent of one's ability, and a refusal ever to evade one's knowledge or act against it—is the only valid
criterion of virtue (Chapter Twelve) and the only possible basis of authentic self-esteem.
The Basic Conditions of Self-Esteem
If man is to achieve and maintain self-esteem, the first and fundamental requirement is that he preserve an
indomitable will to understand. The desire for clarity, for intelligibility, for comprehension of that which falls
within the range of his awareness, is the guardian of man's mental health and the motor of his intellectual growth.
The potential range of a man's awareness depends on the extent of his intelligence, i.e., on the breadth of his
abstract capacity. But the principle of the will to understand remains the same on all levels of intelligence: it
requires the identification and integration, to the best of a man's knowledge and ability, of that which comes into his
mental field.
Unfortunately, this attitude is usually relinquished or breached very early in a person's life—and the person
"adjusts" to the sense