From: Sayke@aol.com
Date: Mon May 24 1999 - 02:50:05 MDT
In a message dated 5/23/99 11:42:07 PM PST, rgvandewalker@juno.com writes:
> I don't think altruism is self-deceit. I believe that it's rational, and
> Ayn Rand is abusing the term to create an attackable straw-man. Here're
> some rationales:
>
> A world in which the strong do not help the weak has imprudent strong
> people, because every person has inherent value to themselves, and no
> strong person can predict when he or she might become weak, and therefore
> need help. If most strong people plan to give help, then help is more
> likely to be available when it's needed. E.O Wilson called this
> "reciprocal altruism" in his famous book "Sociobiology."
<snippage = "more examples of behavior in which helping others helps oneself">
i think the benchmark is pretty straightforward: if a behavior would
benifit you in your opinion, then to take part in the behavior would be
selfish. i thought altruism would be the opposite of this: if a behavior
would not benifit you in your opinion, then to take part in the behavior
would be altrustic. the examples you gave would all be of selfish behavior.
buuuut, maybe im misdefining words... ::checks dictionary to make sure::
(shaddup arhat23! ;)
"eat the rich. the poor are tough and stringy"
no, i havnt been online for 8 hours straight, why do you ask,
sayke
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:03:47 MST