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Not related to the article, however the third paragraph of your comment touches on a controversial idea, so I'll add another perspective. On the idea of sacrif
by yossarian1408 6y ago
Not related to the article, however the third paragraph of your comment touches on a controversial idea, so I'll add another perspective.
On the idea of sacrifice as virtuous.
Sacrifice is only compatible with selfishness. This is because for an action to be a sacrifice, there is two criteria in which it must meet.
The first criteria are that the individual must love themselves.
She who has no value of her own life, cannot sacrifice it, just as she could not sacrifice a rock found in a cave. Vice versa, an individual which holds her own life as immensely valuable, is able to sacrifice it for an ideal, however this leads to the second criterion.
The second criteria are that the individual must hold no value in the ideal or cause in which they contribute towards.
This is because if you hold something as valuable, and you give it up for something of equal or greater value, you are not sacrificing, but rather trading.
Each trade has its own currency, and what that is I leave to the reader to investigate, but sacrifice is only possible for the woman that loves herself and does not hold any value in the ideal in which she sacrifices herself for.
Thus, if you do see virtue in sacrifice, it is only possible because of selfishness, and this is problematic.
- mleonhard 6y agoTrades are not all selfish. A person trades selfishly if they are trying to get some benefit for themselves. Trying to benefit only other people is not selfish. Every rational choice is made based on some personal values. A person with unselfish personal values can take action on those values. Do you think their action occurs because of their selfishness? Are all rational actions selfish? I think that is not a useful way to think.
- yossarian1408 6y agoThe comment I was replying to mentioned it being noble for a woman to starve herself to give $25 to a stranger. I disagree, and I pointed out the contradiction of praising sacrifice while disparaging self-interest, when the two are not possible without each other. If you disagree with that, I would be interested in hearing why. Trades are not all selfish. I never made the point that trades are inherently selfish, only that in some trades monetary gain is not the only form of currency. Are all rational actions selfish? Yes. You state in your second paragraph that "Every rational choice is made based on some personal values". I agree. If you act on your own personal values, this is selfish. And as all rational choice must be in service of personal values, then all rational action is selfish. I'm very open to the idea that I'm wrong on all of this, but I can not see how, so I thank you for engaging with my comment.