From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Aug 31 2002 - 21:51:46 MDT
gts writes
> > > Can you give me an example of human action for which there was no
> > > motivation?
> >
> > Easy. I looked down just now and noticed that my ankles are
> > crossed as I type. I don't remember putting them that way.
> > I think it's a habit.
>
> I think you crossed your ankles because you were motivated to
> feel more comfortable.
This is precisely the same misuse of the English language that
animates your takes on altruism. Your pattern of thinking in
these two cases is to lay down uninteresting novel definitions
and axioms, and then draw a lot of unwarranted conclusions.
I could use the dictionary's definition of "motivation", which
specifies psychological processes ("Something that motivates; an
inducement or incentive"). Or I could use what 99% of the world's
people *mean* by terms such as "altruism" and continue to argue
about it with you.
But I can see that there is no use. All of your statements about
altruism and motivation are tautologically true by dint of the
peculiar way that you use the terms.
Lee
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:36 MST