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Blackguard_ said:This is sort of the problem with psychological egoism, you can make up a selfish reason for any action, it is an unfalsifiable theory.
There is nothing wrong and everything right with trying to be a good samaritan. What is wrong is not trying to be one.xxkingskidxx said:I agree, we do things for selfish motives. Doing something just because there is a need for it to be done without glorifying ourselves is very difficult to master. I was recently accused of trying to be a 'good samaritan' and I think that person was spot on. How does a person detach from personalising good deeds? Interesting question.
Why does the dead guy care about his reputation?Blackguard_ said:It can be. Jumping on a grenade to save my comrades would be quite the reputation boost wouldn't it?
This is sort of the problem with psychological egoism, you can make up a selfish reason for any action, it is an unfalsifiable theory. Was that your point OP?
Why does the dead guy care about his reputation?
No I don't, but then again I don't think egoism is what motivates everything we do.Blackguard_ said:1. I do not agree with psychological egoism.
2. Not many people want to be forgotten after they die. Heroic deaths are remembered a lot longer than "some slob who died in bed at 83". He simply decided posthumous fame and glory would be better than a life and death of obscurity.
You don't think egoism could include how you die?
No I don't, but then again I don't think egoism is what motivates everything we do.
elman said:Why does the dead guy care about his reputation?
Mortensen said:Anyone disagree?
You might enjoy A Theory of Fun.dhuisjen2 said:Time to toss another Nordic flag into the mix here! (And BTW, FWDIM my native language is English.)
In most senses I agree with your starting premise, but with my own qualifier: I believe that there are effectively 5 separate classifications for psychologically satisfying actions:
COMPARISON: Things we do in order to feel as good as or better than someone else.
COMFORT: Things we do to satisfy physical urges -- to increase pleasure and decrease pain.
CONTROL: Things we do in order to increase our sense of power over our environment and freedom to act therein.
CONFIDENCE: Things we do to prove to ourselves that we are in some way "good".
CONNECTION: Things we do because we feel that we are (or want to be) part of something that goes beyond our individual human limitations.
I'm in a long process of writing a book on ethics for my teenage son on this premise, and I would say that the "proper Christian" approach would be to prioritize these motivations in reverse order from how they are presented.
Does this make sense? I'm quite open to critique here.
It is difficult for me to see egoist motive in self distruction if there is no afterlife.Blackguard_ said:Well, you don't have to agree with a position to know what it could say.
I don't beleive egoism motivates everything either, but I see no problem with egoist considerations of death.
Psycho-Egoism is an assertion that all actions are egoist, so they HAVE to explain away any action that you might see as altruistic and/or self-destructive as having a hidden Egoist motive.
elman said:It is difficult for me to see egoist motive in self distruction if there is no afterlife.
morningstar2651 said:You might enjoy A Theory of Fun.
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