I am of the opinion that everyone always acts in their own self-interest and that pure altruism is a myth.
My opinion is that this is a solved problem: pure altruism is obviously a myth, but useful altruism if you like to help people and it is in your self-interest to do things you like. This is sometimes called “warm fuzzies”.
The issue is that Kant fucked things up for us a bit, Kant somehow managed to convince people that it is better if you help people without liking to help them because it is a more pure virtue or some similar bullshit, and centuries later somehow this craziness is still not forgotten.
I propose we “kill” that sort of idea already. Ethics or altruism is not some kind of virtue without enjoyment, rather the goal would be to find a way to make more people derive genuine enjoyment from helping people and help them feel this is the 100% correct form o altruism and there is no virtue needed to have beyond that.
″ the goal would be to find a way to make more people derive genuine enjoyment from helping people.” I can agree with this.
An interesting thing that I’ve noticed is when people take the concept of helping others into their identity it can result in them helping others to the point of being detrimental to themselves. They get hooked on both the pleasure of helping as well as the pleasure of fulfilling their identity as a helper.
I prefer what was said concerning Voldemort in HPMoR. (i’m paraphrasing) He could be nice because he had no moral obligation to be nice. He had no Ideal to live up to therefore he could be as nice or mean as he wanted to be. I have taken that approach for a few years and it works well for me. I find that I’m much happier with the giving I do.
My opinion is that this is a solved problem: pure altruism is obviously a myth, but useful altruism if you like to help people and it is in your self-interest to do things you like. This is sometimes called “warm fuzzies”.
The issue is that Kant fucked things up for us a bit, Kant somehow managed to convince people that it is better if you help people without liking to help them because it is a more pure virtue or some similar bullshit, and centuries later somehow this craziness is still not forgotten.
I propose we “kill” that sort of idea already. Ethics or altruism is not some kind of virtue without enjoyment, rather the goal would be to find a way to make more people derive genuine enjoyment from helping people and help them feel this is the 100% correct form o altruism and there is no virtue needed to have beyond that.
″ the goal would be to find a way to make more people derive genuine enjoyment from helping people.” I can agree with this.
An interesting thing that I’ve noticed is when people take the concept of helping others into their identity it can result in them helping others to the point of being detrimental to themselves. They get hooked on both the pleasure of helping as well as the pleasure of fulfilling their identity as a helper.
I prefer what was said concerning Voldemort in HPMoR. (i’m paraphrasing) He could be nice because he had no moral obligation to be nice. He had no Ideal to live up to therefore he could be as nice or mean as he wanted to be. I have taken that approach for a few years and it works well for me. I find that I’m much happier with the giving I do.