I've been thinking a lot about empathy, between my classes and things going on politically. Having or not having empathy is not necessarily a good or bad thing, it's just having the ability to share in someone else's emotions as well as understand them. Besides I find more people to be sympathetic than empathetic.
This is an empathy quotient test. It would be cool to see how empathetic or not empathetic the community is (:
My score: 70/80
p.s. at the end it talks about how an under 30 could be indicative of an autism spectrum disorder but please don't take that as any sort of diagnosis // happy test taking!
are you more sympathetic or empathetic or neither?
that's the point i was trying to make since the start
it's not bad to feel good about helping people it's very good to feel good about helping people that's what you want people to feel good about
and if you didn't benefit emotionally from it, then wouldn't that be a worse outcome?
people are too doom and gloom about the idea that selfishness inherently means bad when you can do something you want that's good which is what you want but it's still good
both things you said are "i feel good," doesn't matter when. you also just instinctively know that helping people feels good because it's part of human nature; we wouldn't have survived otherwise i mean can you go toe to toe with a tiger i dont think so
I'll put in some cents but I don't feel like quoting anyone. I do agree with cub in that there is probably (i say probably because you never know what anyone is thinking but from personal experience I can agree with altruism having selfishness) something selfish to any altruistic act but it doesn't discredit it. You can feel proud of yourself, or see yourself in a better light for doing something for someone else. I think altruistic acts are always more altruistic than they will ever be selfish, at least that's my hope when people do these things (bc you can never truly know).
So for example, I feel the need to help other people; I do it first and foremost because I care, because I believe people deserve to have happy and fulfilled lives, and I believe that most people deserve this (I say most so no one tries to counter me with something about killers and sh*t). And that's just it. Because as humans on this earth we are constantly interacting with one another. We were brought into this world without much say and some of us at more of an advantage than others. Helping people to try and give them better lives, lives that they deserve is kindness, compassion... altruism, and feeling the goodness from whatever positive outcome comes from that is selfish, but that doesn't invalidate the positive outcome. It's still and always something good.
which is why i gave two counterexamples, because cub said that selflessness does not exist at all. but there's constraints to my counterexamples. so basically its what kyanite said at this point.
deletedover 7 years
Your Empathy Quotient score was 32 out of a possible 80.
this just reminded me of a time i asked a girl if she had an extra hair tie when mine broke and she gave it to me and at the end of our class together she asked for it back
deletedover 7 years
what i mean to say is cub might be right but there's no way of proving it without knowing entirely what the person doing the act is thinking [either consciously or subconsciously]
deletedover 7 years
i can't apply a blanket approach to absolutely every seemingly selfless deed with the presupposition that they're only ultimately acting in their own selfish interest because i can't read minds/judge beyond actions
deletedover 7 years
yes they are behind you and you are ahead of them because you are sharper
I guess Kaworu and cub are on the 'chicken first or egg first' phase of the argument? Since they're arguing on whether the motive of 'i feel good for helping them' or the motive of 'i feel good because they felt good' came first
deletedover 7 years
yoiu think you have more right to post on epicmafia sandbox just because you're lots smarter then me and because you aren't supposed to be banned from the epicmafia forums and because i dont know how to think but you do not
deletedover 7 years
no you stop posting
deletedover 7 years
my point is, to call it "selfish" is just inaccurate, imo
deletedover 7 years
i still think theres a distinction between getting positive reinforcement out of being selfless, and having that positive reinforcement be the only motivator for selflessness. sure, you feel good, but thats not usually the motivator for being selfless. i would even say its not a subconscious motivator either. think about whenever you do some good deed to help someone. are you really thinking about yourself? are you really just doing it because you like the feeling that comes with it? or are you doing it so the other person feels good?
i would say that the pattern is: do good because you want others to feel good > they feel good > you feel good as a result of them feeling good. is it really selfish if the feeling initially comes from selflessness?
and you got a point there, wahnite. saints are a bad example because they're associated with religion.
I mean if the saints are doing it to be "selfless" then they're just trying to achieve self-actualization for themselves aka using themselves to the full potential
But self-actualization still had the 'self' in it, so they're still doing it for their own good, in a way?? That's what I think
saints are actually the pinnacle example of selfishness masquerading as selflessness: they believe they have to "be selfless" for religious reasons and do it to save themselves from the thread of hellfire
im sure theres some humanistic motivation behind that but the same applies: you wouldn't do it if you didn't feel good about it
deletedover 7 years
people are bad except me and especially my parents and the kids who won't be my friend
deletedover 7 years
acts of selflessness exist. thus selflessness exists. but not true selflessness, which i defined above i get what you're saying though-- for it to be selfless it has to be unconditional, so only 'true selflessness' is selfless. im disagreeing with that point. but there are people, saints for example, in the past that could be considered truly selfless. i guess that title comes with unrelenting mercy rather than justice, and care for all human beings.
