There’s a widely held opinion here that terminal goals/values can’t be rational or irrational. One reason for this is that you probably can’t figure out any “eternal” values from first principles. The closest a human being can come to an “objective value system” is to adopt evolution’s values as your own and strive to have as many kids as possible; but the question remains why you should play the good soldier for your genes, and not for some other master? (After all, there’s no “you gene” and in a few generations your kids will be just like everybody else’s...)
So the answer is, it’s up to you. There’s no light in the sky to give you goals in life; their only source is the little voice inside your head. If you want to seek status, fine. If you don’t, that’s okay too. If you want to devote your life to altruism instead, by all means do that! Let a thousand flowers bloom.
Me, I like to pursue ambitions and status. Maybe rationality can help me with that, maybe it can’t. But if rationality tells me that it’s “irrational” for me to want what I want, why should I listen? Won’t I achieve my goals better by not listening?
There’s a widely held opinion here that terminal goals/values can’t be rational or irrational. One reason for this is that you probably can’t figure out any “eternal” values from first principles. The closest a human being can come to an “objective value system” is to adopt evolution’s values as your own and strive to have as many kids as possible; but the question remains why you should play the good soldier for your genes, and not for some other master? (After all, there’s no “you gene” and in a few generations your kids will be just like everybody else’s...)
So the answer is, it’s up to you. There’s no light in the sky to give you goals in life; their only source is the little voice inside your head. If you want to seek status, fine. If you don’t, that’s okay too. If you want to devote your life to altruism instead, by all means do that! Let a thousand flowers bloom.
Me, I like to pursue ambitions and status. Maybe rationality can help me with that, maybe it can’t. But if rationality tells me that it’s “irrational” for me to want what I want, why should I listen? Won’t I achieve my goals better by not listening?