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"Are all actions in life based on interest only"?
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One essential question is the following: "Are all actions in life based on interest only"?
By interest I mean warmth and love (love son/daughter so she love you back), give money to employee (so they work hard), give pleasure to a mate (so she/he pleasures you back.... 
No. Some actions are performed due to societal requirements forced upon us.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter  RE: "Are all actions in life based on interest only"?
April 9, 2023 at 2:43 pm
(This post was last modified: April 9, 2023 at 2:46 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
(April 9, 2023 at 2:27 pm)WinterHold Wrote: One essential question is the following: "Are all actions in life based on interest only"? No. Not everything is transactional. For example, I have no personal gain in holding a door for someone or giving money to a homeless person. There are actions we perform that have no personal benefit for us. Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Heard this argued at Purdue. The argument eventually descended into "all things are done as shades of (pick your position)" Heinlein said "no philosopher ever came out of a debate with more than he went in with."
 RE: "Are all actions in life based on interest only"?
April 9, 2023 at 3:30 pm
(This post was last modified: April 9, 2023 at 3:31 pm by Fake Messiah.)
Maybe everything does come to self-interest. Like if you take a Muslim that goes on a suicidal bomb mission you would think he is doing Allah's will, but in the end, he is doing it for self-interest because he wants to go to paradise and get those 72 virgins.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Quite possibly, but it doesn't prove/solve/correct anything.
(April 9, 2023 at 3:30 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: Maybe everything does come to self-interest. Like if you take a Muslim that goes on a suicidal bomb mission you would think he is doing Allah's will, but in the end, he is doing it for self-interest because he wants to go to paradise and get those 72 virgins. This is because most religions are transactional - follow the rules and you go to Heaven, break the rules and you go to Hell. Religion isn’t necessary to having a moral core, but it’s vital to cover up the fact that you lack a moral core. Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Maybe everything is. You say that holding a door for someone or giving money to a homeless person has no personal benefit for "you", but even these things are seen as transactional because a person holding a door or giving money does expect it to be paid back somehow by someone when they need it one day. They hope that their good deeds will be remembered by society.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
(April 9, 2023 at 5:36 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: Maybe everything is. You say that holding a door for someone or giving money to a homeless person has no personal benefit for "you", but even these things are seen as transactional because a person holding a door or giving money does expect it to be paid back somehow by someone when they need it one day. They hope that their good deeds will be remembered by society. I don’t. For me, things like that are reflex actions. Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
 (April 9, 2023 at 2:27 pm)WinterHold Wrote: One essential question is the following: "Are all actions in life based on interest only"? It's probably impossible to eliminate some level of self-interest in any good thing we do. Even if there is no reward in money or in publicity. Or in direct pay-back. We still reward ourselves by telling ourselves that we have done a good thing. ~ I did a good thing. ~ I have a good character because I do things like this. ~ I am a good person. ~ I am better than those who don't do things like this. I mean, if you've done a good thing, you obviously have a right to feel pleased by that. But that's still a form of reward. |
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