RE: Psych/Philo: Brains want to cooperate

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jul 27 2002 - 13:11:06 MDT


Jef writes

> Some interesting research on (partially) biological basis for altruism.
> See http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,53945,00.html
> - Jef

Well, this confirms what has been rather obvious all
along, from an evolutionary perspective. It's true,
in a certain sense, what they write:

"A team from Emory University in Atlanta says they have
resolved a question philosophers have been debating for
centuries: Why do people cooperate with one another
even when it is not in their best interests to do so?

"The Emory studies revealed a biological theory that
essentially says people cooperate because it makes
them feel good."

Yes. How else would evolution have worked to get people
to cooperate?

The part that seriously bothers me is that such language
can be immediately turned towards use by those that claim
that no one ever does anything except for a selfish reason.
In this "egotistical theory of altruism", there are no
such things as literal acts of selfless charity or self-
sacrifice towards an ideal end. One rationalizes in the
very crudest way that, say, the fanatic (or soldier) gave
his life to the cause as an act of selfishness, in order
to gratify however fleetingly a certain portion of his
brain, the reward circuit.

Lee



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