You
Boro raise a thousand interesting questions. Let me try to give my two cents just on a few of them.
We see other people having an ice-cream in a hot day and suddenly we feel we would like to have one too. Or we see a good looking girl/man on the street (or television) and our sexual passions are aroused.
Aren't we like Max who just reacts to the world around him?
With self-interest it's clear every organism tries to stay alive. I'm not a great fan of Mr. Dawkins' "egoistig gene"-doctrine, but there is a point there: any organism will wish to prevail and have descendants. So we humans do too.
If Max thinks he has to guard the yard to be able to do what he should why would that motivation differ from ours? If not being a bit simpler? Looking at the chimps and Bonobos shows that other animals can have very complex systems of identifications and aims they wish to settle - and even dogs (I'm no dog fan myself but underestand why some people are) can seemingly "think" about them (not to talk of dolphins, whales, ravens, crows, magpies - which are much more clever than domesticated dogs even if we tend to love them more and relate to them more easily).
But anyway I don't see the difference between the self-interest and morals as you do
Boro. Or I do have a different interpretation of it.
One wants to stay alive. Sure. And one wants to lead a good life. Sure as well. But one is also wishing to see others having a good life around her/him. Now why?
If we were purely egoistic what would it matter if other people perished? But it matters to us! We feel bad if our friends suffer, we cry when our relatives die, we feel bad if a person we only know through the internet loses his/her job. (Sorry about that but I couldn't resist it).
We care about others and that is our nature!
It's clear we do not worry as much about people on the other side of the planet. We may be moved by a catastrophe like the Tsunami in Thailand a few years ago or the earthquakes in Myanmar last year but still, until we have connections to people actually suffering from those, we tend to be just symphatetic to the victims.
But why are we even symphatetic? Because that is our nature!
Why do we love and get concerned of others? Because that is our nature!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Boro
All I can really know for certain is death and pain. That is we all have the capacity to cause death and pain, but with or without us, it exists and it is certain.
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Why be so pessimistic? Why don't you say that all we can really know for certain is life and happiness?
For every act of violence there are a thousand acts of kindness in this world. Just look at your everyday world!
Do not confuse the media (which only reports
exceptions like beatings and murders and war) with reality where we all live in peace and love! (sorry, I had to let my old-hippie -spirit loose after all)
When someone getting it safely to her/his work is a front-page news I want to leave this humanity for things would be really bad then...
