It's May 21, 2024, 06:37:35 AM
If I were a person that had an untameable urge to torture random people to death, I'd kill myself. It is not always good to strive for what's best for you as an individual, one has to put things in relation to each other, if your advantage far outweighs the harm done to the rest of them niggas, then yes, strive for it. If the opposite is the case, don't. Call me a Kantist, but I wouldn't act in a way that I'd hate another nigga for.
Being the Objectivist that I am, I regard selfishness as a virtue. Selfishness is simply the "concern with one's own interests". It would be a negation of the facts of life to place anyone else's interests above your own. Therefore, I strongly believe in ethical hedonism as being the way to act socially, as opposed to 'genuine altruism'. If there's nothing in it for you to gain, you have no reason to act. Gaining is a vague term though; just someone showing you their respect, or even the feeling of a moral virtue can be enough to make a seemingly unselfish deed an act of ethical hedonism.I believe it all starts with your view on mankind. If you have a certain vision of what man should be like, and what should be considered virtues and what they should be praised for, you will be able to judge them for what they're worth. 'Unselfish' behavior then becomes an pledge for your own moral purity. How unselfish is that, really? It's perfectly selfish.
^Is exploitation a virtue to you?
Quote from: 7even on January 25, 2008, 06:00:28 AMIf I were a person that had an untameable urge to torture random people to death, I'd kill myself. It is not always good to strive for what's best for you as an individual, one has to put things in relation to each other, if your advantage far outweighs the harm done to the rest of them niggas, then yes, strive for it. If the opposite is the case, don't. Call me a Kantist, but I wouldn't act in a way that I'd hate another nigga for. If you had the urge to torture people to death it would probably be in your best interest to commit suicide to ensure you won’t have the opportunity to feel any guilt since torturing people would go against your ethics and your morals.
Quote from: Eleven 2 Three on January 24, 2008, 06:42:37 PMBeing the Objectivist that I am, I regard selfishness as a virtue. Selfishness is simply the "concern with one's own interests". It would be a negation of the facts of life to place anyone else's interests above your own. Therefore, I strongly believe in ethical hedonism as being the way to act socially, as opposed to 'genuine altruism'. If there's nothing in it for you to gain, you have no reason to act. Gaining is a vague term though; just someone showing you their respect, or even the feeling of a moral virtue can be enough to make a seemingly unselfish deed an act of ethical hedonism.I believe it all starts with your view on mankind. If you have a certain vision of what man should be like, and what should be considered virtues and what they should be praised for, you will be able to judge them for what they're worth. 'Unselfish' behavior then becomes an pledge for your own moral purity. How unselfish is that, really? It's perfectly selfish.Eleven, nice post! I am very impressed!I'm curious if you are a follower or if you have studied Ayn Rand's teachings on objectivism. Being that she was the most renowned objectivist I can think of. She wrote some great novels that illustrate the virtue of selfishness. For example, in one novel (I think it was in Atlas Shrugged), there's a wealthy man who's head of a giant construction business, and people are always complaining that he's so selfish and they convince him to biuld a railroad that nobody ever ends up actually using. But then when he's selfish and thinks only of his profits, whatever he biulds goes to great use, and no time, energy, or capital is wasted.I agree with some of the ideals of objectivism, but I don't personally like Ayn Rand though because in a strange way she believes that everyone should think for themselves as long as they come to the same conclusions as her cause she was very arrogant and thought herself to be the most "rational" and since she didn't believe in compromise this cause her to lose many of her closest friends.
I've heard of Eudaimonism and of some shit Plato and Freud had to say concerning this. What are you trying to get at, with this? You have to be pretty idealistic to count on people to dismiss decadent fun when they fallow a principle like this. What you preach is kinda like anarchy. Let me tell you a little true story that involves me and the principle of anarchy:I was like 15, maybe 16, I'm not sure. It was the time when a lot of people my age had those annoying anarchy A-symbols tagged on their backpacks and stuff, you know. I was hanging out at the local lake, summer night, getting drunk and walking from bonfire to bonfire with some friends. Some groups you knew, some faces were new. Anyways there was this random group with this random dude who had a huge flag with that A-symbol tagged on it. I was pretty drunk, and I was like "yo, that's some dope flag you got there homie. can I play with it?" He gave it to me, and after a couple secondes of thinking I threw it into their bonfire, basically. People were pretty shook. I was like "yo, being an anarchist and everything, wouldn't it be ironic to get at me for throwing your stuff into the fire?" Put on a smirk and went away. Needless to say that they didn't do shit.
Quote from: King Sikotic on January 24, 2008, 08:57:56 PMNo such thing. Being selfish is part of being human. Isn't it weird how unselfishness is seen as a virtue?
No such thing. Being selfish is part of being human.
Quote from: Eleven 2 Three on January 25, 2008, 01:58:06 AMQuote from: King Sikotic on January 24, 2008, 08:57:56 PMNo such thing. Being selfish is part of being human. Isn't it weird how unselfishness is seen as a virtue?Not really. We all wish to be something we ultimately can't be. That's why Christians wanna be like Jesus. Why some music fans want to imitate their favorite musicians lifestyle. Same goes with sports fans and their favorite athlete.We wish for things we cannot attain.
The pleasure principle... Naturally, man always strives for direct satisfaction of his desires. It requires a process of growth before he realizes that often it is desirable to delay the satisfaction of his desires, in order for a more desirable outcome. If you eat that corn now, it'll still some of your hunger. If you decide to plant its kernels, you'll have plenty more corn the next year. The search for immediate satisfaction of your desires, might prohibit yourself from enjoying much greater satisfaction (or cause dissatisfaction) later.Think of that when you're talking about a welfare state. They make demands, but at the cost of who? Who are these people, to be granted the right to a claim they never achieved? How is unemployment or laziness an achievement? Why should the rights of others be sub par to the unearned 'rights' of the non productive?