I was a Rand-ish egoist, although unaware of the fact that someone like Rand existed. Also, it was the time when the earthquake in Japan happened, and when I stated that I didn’t care at all for those who died, it started. I cannot state what exactly changed my mind—first, I do not recall it precisely enough and second, I don’t think it was a single argument that caused me to change this worldview. Instead, it felt like one hundred good arguments sieging my worldview, rendering it indefensible.
Upon realization of this, I changed it.
This change was actually not one change, I recall three distinct changes, each of which was, although pretty radical, manageable. In the beginning, I held the view that
(1) I should be an egoist, seeking to maximize my own happiness/pleasure/whatnotelse;
(2) everyone should be an egoist, caring only for themselves.
Of course, at that time, this seemed pretty obvious to me, but as my worldview was besieged by many good arguments, I recall changing it to this one:
(1) I want to be an egoist;
(2) Other people might not be egoists, they might not want to be and there is no reason why they should be.
This seemes more defensible, but upon further reading of the sequences (and discussing them, reading more, realizing that there still were quite a few good arguments and they didn’t stop nagging) my worldview again changed, and guess what came now:
(1) I want to be a utilitarian;
(2) Other people might hold different worldviews.
From this, it was only a short, not-at-all-painful step, yet a, as I guess, necessary one, to get to:
(1) I want to be a utilitarian
(2) Others should want to be utilitarians as well, if they have similar values, if they are normal, empathic humans (and even if not, there might be good reasons)
I guess changing (2) was necessary for changing (1), and changing (2) again strenghtened my worldview. In order to change your mind, you must first allow yourself changing your mind, and then you can change it.
I was a Rand-ish egoist, although unaware of the fact that someone like Rand existed. Also, it was the time when the earthquake in Japan happened, and when I stated that I didn’t care at all for those who died, it started. I cannot state what exactly changed my mind—first, I do not recall it precisely enough and second, I don’t think it was a single argument that caused me to change this worldview. Instead, it felt like one hundred good arguments sieging my worldview, rendering it indefensible.
Upon realization of this, I changed it.
This change was actually not one change, I recall three distinct changes, each of which was, although pretty radical, manageable. In the beginning, I held the view that (1) I should be an egoist, seeking to maximize my own happiness/pleasure/whatnotelse; (2) everyone should be an egoist, caring only for themselves.
Of course, at that time, this seemed pretty obvious to me, but as my worldview was besieged by many good arguments, I recall changing it to this one: (1) I want to be an egoist; (2) Other people might not be egoists, they might not want to be and there is no reason why they should be.
This seemes more defensible, but upon further reading of the sequences (and discussing them, reading more, realizing that there still were quite a few good arguments and they didn’t stop nagging) my worldview again changed, and guess what came now: (1) I want to be a utilitarian; (2) Other people might hold different worldviews.
From this, it was only a short, not-at-all-painful step, yet a, as I guess, necessary one, to get to: (1) I want to be a utilitarian (2) Others should want to be utilitarians as well, if they have similar values, if they are normal, empathic humans (and even if not, there might be good reasons)
I guess changing (2) was necessary for changing (1), and changing (2) again strenghtened my worldview. In order to change your mind, you must first allow yourself changing your mind, and then you can change it.