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In economic terms, might we think about this as someone who is maximizing a utility function for social welfare rather than individual welfare? I always though
by mizzao 11y ago
In economic terms, might we think about this as someone who is maximizing a utility function for social welfare rather than individual welfare?
I always thought some of my reasoning about the world was rather strange and hard to comprehend. Now I see that there are people who are even more extreme than me.
It's also particularly interesting that someone can be this way in the absence of religion, since atheism probably begets nihilism more so than other religions.
- andrepd 11y agoYou don't have to be religious to recognize that people want happiness and thus working towards others' happiness is a worthy goal.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kybernetikos 11y agoThe way you phrase it is as if one of those things follows from the other, but it doesn't. Would you say "You don't have to be religious to recognize that people want ice cream, thus working towards giving them ice cream is a worthy goal"? Just because other people want something doesn't mean that you value giving it to them, without some other unstated belief.
- kuschku 11y agoBut it would make them happy? And if it costs me less than it brings them, sure, I’d do it. That’s like the whole point why social nations in Europe can exist. Because everyone is willing to help, sometimes even at their own cost.
- MichaelGG 11y ago>And if it costs me less than it brings them, sure, I’d do it. This can't be true (or did you just mean for ice cream, where the cost is negligible?). Some people are going to have a terrible life, and for something like 20% of your salary, you could dramatically improve it. I doubt there is a way to measure the impact where giving, say, half of disposable income directly to some poor folks isn't a net positive.
- kuschku 11y agoWell, that's one of the parts of social democracies, where you end up spending around half of your salary on income taxes.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- eli_gottlieb 11y ago>It's also particularly interesting that someone can be this way in the absence of religion, since atheism probably begets nihilism more so than other religions. What are you on about now?
- cjbprime 11y ago> might we think about this as someone who is maximizing a utility function for social welfare rather than individual welfare? Yes, and in fact this (entirely secular) philosophy has a name: utilitarianism.