Ambition (character trait)

Ambition is a character trait that describes people who are driven to better their station or to succeed at lofty goals.

1916 advertisement for a film titled Ambition, with text negatively characterizing the trait

Origin and nature

Ambition has been interpreted as the resolute culmination of a bold personal decision, but also as a receptive acceptance of an externally-provided great destiny.^[1] It can be characterized as a drive or a goad that makes the person with ambition uncomfortable until they have realized their goals.^[2] This discomfort can in part arise from the fact that the extraordinary goals that characterize ambition tend to come to public notice.^[3] David Hume called it "the most incurable and inflexible of human passions".^[4]

Various philosophers have taken different views of ambition. Aristotle described it as virtue born of the love of achieving noble purposes, though he was ambivalent about its potential ends.^[5] Philosopher Agnes Callard contrasts ambition with aspiration: in her view, ambition concerns goals with already-ascertained value: money, power, fame, and the like. Aspiration concerns goals that one does not yet fully understand the value of, but that one hopes to understand in the process of reaching for them.^{[6][page needed]}