• Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    I mean, I oppose genocide (among other things) on the basis that I wouldn’t like being murdered and I prefer to live in a society that doesn’t accept genocide. That’s kind of self-serving in a way.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Well, in Phylosophy there is the idea of Psychological Egoism, which is basically that we are all always selfish because even when doing good deeds we do it because at the very least it makes us feel good.

      So you could always and for all acts assemble a rational argument that the act was done for selfish reasons.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        My problem with this line of thinking is that it doesn’t seem to be falsifiable. Why did you help the old grandma across the road? Because you got a little mental reward. Why do you vote for a candidate who promises to reduce the cost of housing when you own a house and would stand to benefit from higher costs? Because you got a little mental reward.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Which is why it’s in the domain of Philosophy, same as the whole idea of “I think therefore I am” (which is as far as answers got to the question of, roughly, “How do you know that anythink you know is real, including yourself, if your sense can be decieve?”).

          Philosophy is the mother of Science, but it ain’t Science.