From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Thu Sep 19 2002 - 12:35:33 MDT
Rafal,
(My apologies for misspelling your name in the last post)
>>> Actually Rafael and I were pretty much in agreement on
>>> this idea that
>>> altruistic acts are driven by a motivation for the reward
>>> experience. It was Eliezer and you who suggested that people
>>> sometimes act altruistically separately from the desire for the
>>> rewarding experience that comes from helping others.
>
> ### I am sorry, gts, but it is not true that I agreed with
> you on the reward experience as the motivation for altruism.
> As far as I recall, we discussed
> the physical location of the experience of pleasure (and we
> disagreed on that topic, too).
Hmm. You entered that discussion with a message in which you questioned
whether the nucleus accumbens was the seat of the reward experience, but
you ended it with words to the effect that "otherwise I am in agreement
with your post." I assumed that to mean that while you disagreed about
the particulars of the neural mechanisms of reward, specifically the
central role of the nucleus accumbens, you nevertheless agreed with my
over-all position that altruistic acts were driven by this reward
mechanism - that is, by the pursuit of reward that was for example
demonstrated in the clinical test reported in the press and reported
here at the start of that thread. I must wonder now what you were
agreeing with.
Should I believe now that you like Lee think "altruistic" acts are
driven by something other than the desire to experience the reward that
comes through acting in cooperation with others? Why do people act
altruistically, if not because they feel some sense of satisfaction from
doing so?
-gts
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