We are social animals. In order to be social we must be both selfish and empathetic. I selfishly want you to empathise with me and I want to empathise with you in order to facilitate that. Well... I truly suck at empathy, but this is true for most people and social animals. We african apes show these characteristics more clearly than most creatures, but I think that's due to ease and similarity in "reading" our fellow apes.
On Apr 8, 9:37 pm, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 9:25 AM, Matthijs <[email protected]> wrote: > > What is selfish about empathizing with another person? > > I don't know. What is the motivation of the empathizer? Is it to make the > person they are empathizing feel better? If so, why would they do this? > Perhaps because it makes them feel better about themselves in some way. > Perhaps because people appreciate it and praise them for it. Maybe it gives > them a reputation as a 'good person' and they like it. These are all > guesses but the ultimate goal, as always, is to make oneself feel better or > to improve social standing or some such. > > dj > > > On Apr 5, 1:31 am, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > We're all basically selfish. We do what makes us feel good about > > > ourselves. What makes us feel good about ourselves is often mirrored in > > how > > > we see others feel about us. So it pays to make your friends and family > > > love you. If you can. > > > > dj > > > > On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Matthijs <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > Back again with a dilemma. > > > > For quite a while I speak with people and now and then we come to the > > > > question: why do we do the things we do? Generally I come to 2 views. > > > > We live to help other people, this is the motor behind all behaviour > > > > (altruism). Or we nor live for ourself and all things we do are from a > > > > self interest view, we give love to receive it (egoism). So I was > > > > wondering how may I look at these views? Do I really only want to help > > > > myself or only help myself. > > > > > Greetings, > > > > Matthijs > > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups > > > > ""Minds Eye"" group. > > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > [email protected]<minds-eye%[email protected]> > > <minds-eye%[email protected]<minds-eye%[email protected]> > > > > > . > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en. > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > ""Minds Eye"" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<minds-eye%[email protected]> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
