Wwanderer
Kids, don't try this at home!
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2010
- Messages
- 7,050
- Reaction score
- 15,788
@john.smith - I am not denying that people acting in their own interests is a powerful "axiom" for understanding a lot of human behavior. Clearly it is.
All I'm saying is that it isn't an *absolute* 100% accurate all the time and entirely complete rule or guide. People and especially there interactions aren't that simple; patterns of behavior have their exceptions with people (and most other "higher" animals too). This statement would not be considered controversial by most psychologists or sociologists. Classical economics is based on the principle that people (sometimes called "economic decision makers") *always* act in their own self-interest, but even in this restricted realm where the idea/"axiom" seems almost self-evident, it has been shown to fail in many real world cases. (The work earned a Nobel Prize in economics in fact.)
My point, in other words, is that you can understand people better if you don't oversimplify them. Altruism, including very extreme forms of altruism, is so well documented and established scientifically that studying it is a small but active research area of its own. There are even brain structure differences and activity in different lobes of the brain (particularly the amygdala, for example see http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ltruism-good-deeds-may-be-rooted-in-the-brain) associated with selfish and altruistic behavior, strongly suggesting that they are fundamentally different forms/motivations of behavior.
Btw, I think Christians are a particularly bad group in which to consider sacrifice and altruism because of their belief in reward and punishment in the afterlife. It means that one can always attribute a sacrifice or altruistic deed to self interest in afterlife outcomes, whether or not that is the actual motivation...makes everything ambiguous.
And to make a small, half-step back towards the thread's topic; let me end by recommending a relevant *book* (though not exactly a sex manual):
https://play.google.com/store/books...US&gclid=CIj638Hvv8kCFYWaNwod-YIJnw&gclsrc=ds
-Ww
All I'm saying is that it isn't an *absolute* 100% accurate all the time and entirely complete rule or guide. People and especially there interactions aren't that simple; patterns of behavior have their exceptions with people (and most other "higher" animals too). This statement would not be considered controversial by most psychologists or sociologists. Classical economics is based on the principle that people (sometimes called "economic decision makers") *always* act in their own self-interest, but even in this restricted realm where the idea/"axiom" seems almost self-evident, it has been shown to fail in many real world cases. (The work earned a Nobel Prize in economics in fact.)
My point, in other words, is that you can understand people better if you don't oversimplify them. Altruism, including very extreme forms of altruism, is so well documented and established scientifically that studying it is a small but active research area of its own. There are even brain structure differences and activity in different lobes of the brain (particularly the amygdala, for example see http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ltruism-good-deeds-may-be-rooted-in-the-brain) associated with selfish and altruistic behavior, strongly suggesting that they are fundamentally different forms/motivations of behavior.
Btw, I think Christians are a particularly bad group in which to consider sacrifice and altruism because of their belief in reward and punishment in the afterlife. It means that one can always attribute a sacrifice or altruistic deed to self interest in afterlife outcomes, whether or not that is the actual motivation...makes everything ambiguous.
And to make a small, half-step back towards the thread's topic; let me end by recommending a relevant *book* (though not exactly a sex manual):
https://play.google.com/store/books...US&gclid=CIj638Hvv8kCFYWaNwod-YIJnw&gclsrc=ds
-Ww
