From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Mon Aug 05 2002 - 09:17:21 MDT
lcorbin@tsoft.com (Lee Corbin) writes:
>But what did I way all that? The best examples are those given
>by Ridley (tipping at restaurants you know you'll never visit
>again) and by me (allowing someone out of a crowded parking
>lot even though it delays your own journey a bit). IF you
>could observe (secretly, of course) these behaviors, then you
>could announce the experimental probability of the actions of
>altruistic genes.
Are we disagreeing about anything other than whether the term selfish
is a good label for the causes of these habits?
I go about deciding whether to label these behaviors as altruistic by
observing whether they look like consistent policies of being nice to
people. I don't see anything in your test for genuine altruistism that
isn't a test for consistent policies of being nice.
You think The Origins of Virtue is a good description of why these habits
evolved. I think the The Mating Mind is a good description. Since neither
book implies that the other is wrong, I'm not sure whether this indicates
much disagreement over the causality.
>> >The other reason is much more conjectural; it could very
>> >well happen IMO that by repeatedly announcing to oneself
>> >that every act one does is for a selfish reason, less
>> >cooperative behavior in one could develop. I actually
>>
>> I can sort of imagine how describing cooperation as selfish (i.e. describing
>> the benefits of cooperation) could reduce cooperation, but it's hard to
>> see how this is more likely than, say, the hypothesis that convincing
>> people that good behavior will be rewarded by a trip to the Christian
>> version of heaven will cause them to act nicer.
>
>I think that in some cases it does cause people to act nicer.
>And so likewise I worry that some people may be less altruistic
>because they've convinced themselves that their altruistic
>urges are irrational.
Well, I believe the same about heaven. Is that a good reason for concluding
that heaven exists?
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | Free Jon Johansen! http://www.rahul.net/pcm |
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