Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 11:31:21 -0400
From: Stirling Newberry <allegro-AT-thecia.net>
Subject: Re: PLC: Arguing for Altruism


>There are less dubious ways at the "virtue," however, in simple concepts
>like "socialied" and "anti-social."
>
>The largest conceptual knot I have encountered re "altruism" is our idea
>that actions have motives (we punish, not the act, but the motive), and
>where the defender of the existential import of the word altruism runs into
>difficulty is in presenting the motivation for a supposedly altruistic act.
>In order for it to be truly altruistic, in the pure understanding, it must
>be motiveless, and this is a concept few can accept.
>

Or there must be a multiplicity of sources for motives, which is equally
unpalatable to many. There is no conflict between "egotism" and "altruism"
both being motivations if they are separately arrived at by separate mental
mechanisms.


Stirling Newberry
business: openmarket.com
personal: allegro-AT-thecia.net
War and Romance: http://www.thecia.net/users/allegro/public_html




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