Posted by Bartholomew (63.214.94.4) on April 26, 2002 at 19:33:06:
In Reply to: Re: The Good Samaritan: The Problem Of Inner Selfishness; Update posted by Jan (195.121.225.48) on April 26, 2002 at 12:41:21:
: The concept of 'egoism' and 'altruism' are very relative things; when we look deeply we can see that in the end we do all things because it makes us feel good (or we feel bad if we don't do them)!
I used to think that. But it's wrong. How about habitual actions, things that we don't think about every time we do them? When people are moving on "autopilot," as they do when following habits, they aren't making any decisions about how good what they're doing makes them feel. They aren't making conscious decisions about their actions at all.
Also, reflex actions aren't motivated by how good the person would feel by following them. When someone ducks to avoid a ball, it's true that they are avoiding pain. But they are not thinking about the pain; they are just reflexively getting out of the way of something rushing at their face. Another thing I'd call a reflex action is a response, based on preconceived views, to another person's argument. The person making the response has no reason for making it besides that he read the other person's views, and remembered that he disagreed with them. So he had an urge to voice his disagreement.
Finally, morality is often not motivated by how good the moral-follower would feel. It CAN be, but usually people don't even think about how uncomfortable they would be about themselves if they didn't follow their morals. They just follow them.