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Missing concept here -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus conatus, a (very old) philosophical concept that entities se
by awinter-py 10y ago
Missing concept here -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus conatus, a (very old) philosophical concept that entities seek their own improvement.
Selection bias suggests that most of the things we encounter have grown better over time (to stay competitive). Of course we're biased to view positive change as normal.
Also missing from the article is the case of aging. I've known some 80 year-olds who have stayed themselves and some who haven't. I've known parents who feel like teenagers are 'no longer themselves'.
- kybernetikos 10y agoYeah, I take this difference in intuitions to be primarily about the fact that we are predisposed to be charitable towards others. If they do something oustandingly evil, we're more likely to say that they weren't themselves, whereas if they do something outstandingly good, we say that they were their best selves. Because of this reasonable bias, I don't think peoples intuitions can be relied on to be any kind of real measure of whether people are discontinuous with their past selves or not.
- awinter-py 10y agoInteresting that you use 'good' vs 'positive'. An uncharacteristically selfless/moral act can be positive or negative depending on the person and the context. Take for example a teacher with a history of burnout who one day doesn't go the extra mile for a student. That's uncharacteristic, and morally it's a step down. But given the growth and sustainability curve for a teacher, it's a positive change -- it's normal and expected.