The only reasons we care about other people is either to survive, i.e. get what we want, or because it is part of our preferences to see other people being happy. Accordingly, trying to maximize happiness for everybody can be seen as purely selfish. Either as an effort to survive, by making everybody wanting to make everybody else happy, given that not you but somebody else wins. Or simply because it makes oneself happy.
You can reduce every possible motivation to selfishness if you like, but that makes the term kind of useless; if all choices are selfish, describing a particular choice as selfish has zero information content.
Accordingly, trying to maximize happiness for everybody can be seen as purely selfish. Either as an effort to survive, by making everybody wanting to make everybody else happy, given that not you but somebody else wins. Or simply because it makes oneself happy.
You should be more cautious about telling other people what their motivations are. I woulddie to save the world, and I don’t seem to be alone in this preference. And this neither helps me survive nor makes me momentarily happy enough to offset the whole dying thing.
You should be careful not to conflate “preference” and “things that make oneself happy”. Or make that a more clearly falsifiable component of your hypothesis.
Why would anyone have a preference detached from their personal happiness? I do what I do because it makes me feel good because I think it is the right thing to do. Doing the wrong thing deliberately makes me unhappy.
I don’t care much more about myself than I care about other intelligences.
I care about other intelligences and myself to an almost equal extent.
I care about myself and other intelligences.
I care about myself. I care about other intelligences.
I care about my preferences.
What does it mean to care more about others? Who’s caring here? If you want other people to be happy, why do you want it if not for your own comfort?
I’m vegetarian because I don’t like unnecessary suffering. That is, I care about myself not feeling bad because if others are unhappy I’m also unhappy. If you’d rather die than to cause a lot of suffering in others that is not to say that you care more about others than yourself, that is nonsense.
The only reasons we care about other people is either to survive, i.e. get what we want, or because it is part of our preferences to see other people being happy. Accordingly, trying to maximize happiness for everybody can be seen as purely selfish. Either as an effort to survive, by making everybody wanting to make everybody else happy, given that not you but somebody else wins. Or simply because it makes oneself happy.
You can reduce every possible motivation to selfishness if you like, but that makes the term kind of useless; if all choices are selfish, describing a particular choice as selfish has zero information content.
You should be more cautious about telling other people what their motivations are. I would die to save the world, and I don’t seem to be alone in this preference. And this neither helps me survive nor makes me momentarily happy enough to offset the whole dying thing.
That terminology is indeed useless. All it does is to obfuscate matters.
What’s your point anyway?
You should be careful not to conflate “preference” and “things that make oneself happy”. Or make that a more clearly falsifiable component of your hypothesis.
Why would anyone have a preference detached from their personal happiness? I do what I do because it makes me feel good because I think it is the right thing to do. Doing the wrong thing deliberately makes me unhappy.
I don’t care much more about myself than I care about other intelligences.
I care about other intelligences and myself to an almost equal extent.
I care about myself and other intelligences.
I care about myself. I care about other intelligences.
I care about my preferences.
What does it mean to care more about others? Who’s caring here? If you want other people to be happy, why do you want it if not for your own comfort?
I’m vegetarian because I don’t like unnecessary suffering. That is, I care about myself not feeling bad because if others are unhappy I’m also unhappy. If you’d rather die than to cause a lot of suffering in others that is not to say that you care more about others than yourself, that is nonsense.