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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In an age of political animus, increasing hostility toward "others," and 24/7 media coverage that seems to focus on the negative, a recent article in Frontiers in Psychology provides a glimmer of hope, particularly for those who live in the United States.
Written by Yale University academic Gabriel Grant, "Exploring the Possibility of Peak Individualism, Humanity's Existential Crisis, and an Emerging Age of Purpose" aims to clear up two competing views of today's cultural narrative in the United States. First is the traditional view of the next generation—millennials—whom many view as individualistic, materialistic, and narcissistic. Some even refer to millennials as "Gen Me" in response to those who develop their "personal brand" with selfies and social media posts.
In stark contrast there is a view of millennials as rejecting selfish values and leading America into a "great age of purpose." Unlike previous generations, simply earning money is not enough for them—significant data shows that younger people are searching for purpose in their lives and their work. Consider the fact that the non-profit group 80,000 Hours (whose name represents the amount of time spent at work in the average lifespan) even exists. 80,000 Hours provides career advice to help young people build careers with social impact. Universities and businesses are increasingly following this path to help millennial workers achieve their goal of finding purpose in their lives.
Both sides can provide reams of anecdotal evidence that supports their view of millennials, and until recently, there have been few studies on the issue. In his article, however, Grant theorized that Google's digitization of millions of books and the Ngram Viewer, a tool that shows how phrases have appeared in books, could allow a quantified analysis of culture over the past two centuries, and he used this approach to quantitatively test the popular notion that a drive for purpose is increasing. What he found is encouraging.
Yeah, because people with a healthy ego would never possibly do volunteer work...
Source: https://opensource.com/article/17/10/rise-open-source
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @05:19PM (5 children)
You don't like my use of social darwinism but you have no problem with using enlightened self-interest? Don't make me laugh miss high and mighty.
I get it, you're some version of a materialist. I fundamentally disagree and find it ridiculous when people try and turn altruism into some form of selfishness. The whole concept falls to pieces when you see one species helping another.
One clarification, I asked a question about Dawkins cause he is the primary motivator behind many modern materialists. Then I added commentary with "Survival of the fittest is the worst bastardization of natural selection I have ever seen." It was not an accusation, it was a comment about applying the concepts of natural selection to non-genetic traits of humanity.
You are 100% correct that a lot of human behavior which appears altruistic actually has some self interest behind it, and much of morality and ethics really is about enlightened self interest. I simply can not abide when people try and use that insight to destroy the very meaning of altruism since there are so many observable instances where there is zero possibility of self interest coming into play. The general response from materialists is that such acts are aberrations, or there is a perceived benefit, or instinct causing the actions out of a confused enlightened self interest.
If you simply do not believe that altruism exists then we can agree to disagree.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday October 11 2017, @05:56PM (4 children)
You really need to check some of those assumptions. I'm not an atheist, and I also don't think there's any meaningful separation between the ideas of hard materialism and hard idealism (the idea that everything is thought). My suspicion is that these are two forms of the same "God-stuff."
The materialists are correct though (if for the wrong reasons) that there is a perceived benefit to even the most altruistic-seeming actions. Even if we can't see it. I'd been informally called "x-altruist" at some point due to my answers to questions like "would you donate a kidney, for free, to save a complete stranger?" To which my answer is yes. There doesn't, on the surface of it, *seem* to be a payoff for something like that. It's dangerous, I gain nothing, and I'd have reduced physical resiliency for it. But I'm sure somewhere in there is some kind of payoff.
You don't seem to understand what enlightened self-interest means. I get it, if you're a certain type of religious it has the same horror as the idea of moral relativism...which is not the same thing, by the way, as moral subjectivism and which many religious types confuse it with. Sorry, but this is simple emotionalism; you'll be less afraid when you have the facts.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:37PM
Speaking of making assumptions, but ok whatever its fine when you do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:44PM (2 children)
At least you have more substance than TMB, and it sounds like you believe everything is all connected and thus even if it has no bearing on the personal motivations of the actor there is still some cosmic self-interest at play. I could get on board with that, but its so nebulous as to not have much bearing on the intentions of individuals. More like "there is a reason for everything" type of philosophical argument.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday October 11 2017, @09:32PM (1 child)
Why do you think God cares what we do? All personal theistic God ideas are incoherent; their attributes clash with one another and with observable reality. Only the "ground of all being" category is even close to internally consistent, and that is in permanent conflict with the idea of agency. This, incidentally, is the underlying problem with Thomism and similar schools of Christian (and Muslim!) thought about the nature of God...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:26PM
Back to assumptions, I guess I could have told you earlier that never in my life have I ascribed to any religion. Spiritual atheist would be the closest label for me. I don't believe in altruism because it is tied to the concept of god, I believe in it through personal observation and the quite common examples of non-human creatures helping out an individual from another species. Sometimes there is an instinctual / selfish motivation such as rearing a baby from another species, but quite common are acts that make no sense. If you believe in free will then altruism is a valid concept with no addendum necessary unless you're analyzing a specific scenario for more complicated motivations.