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I really appreciate your further comments. I agree for most part that humans and other living things ultimately act out of self-interest. However, there are ci
by prebrov 10y ago
I really appreciate your further comments. I agree for most part that humans and other living things ultimately act out of self-interest.
However, there are circumstances when rationale breaks, like when member of your family develops a terminal decease. A purely rational decision would be to cut emotional and financial losses and abandon them, wouldn't it? Yet, luckily, we don't see that happen.
The length to which we go to keep family relationships is irrational, yet I suspect it's a huge component of how we managed to ensure reliance of a system and develop huge societies.
- munin 10y ago> Yet, luckily, we don't see that happen. is it lucky? especially in the west, we'll fight a terminal disease long past the inevitable, at the expense of the patients well being. at some point the humane thing to do IS to "abandon" them.
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- jes 10y agoI'm glad you're enjoying this discussion. I'm enjoying it as well. My view is a little different. I don't think abandoning someone who has been a great value to me because they have developed a terminal disease would be consistent with acting in my self-interest. To do such a thing would be to betray the virtues that I hold dear, such as honesty, integrity, justice, pride, etc. For example, consider honesty. If this person was a great value to me, we would have some kind of understanding that we don't just toss each other overboard in tough times. If they get sick and I do toss them overboard, I would be a liar, and that brings a ton of other negatives with it, such as undercutting my personal integrity. There's also the issue of justice. If this person has treated me well, if we have fallen in love, would it be just to abandon them when they are in the fight of their life? That sounds like injustice to me, unless there was some kind of (weird) agreement covering this situation. This reply is getting a bit long, so I'll stop here. If I haven't explained this very well, please say so and I'll try to be clearer.
- ajb 10y agoThe thing is, once you find that the logic of how you decide what to do includes good actions being conditional on being virtuous, it becomes clear that the part about self interest is not essential, and your logic would be clearer if you refactored it to remove that.
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