Posted by alexandra_k on April 10, 2018, at 20:13:02
In reply to Re: the handicap principle, posted by baseball55 on March 29, 2018, at 20:53:33
the idea of 'self interest' is weird.
there are different definitions of what it is that is in ones own self interest.
and whether psychopathy is properly characterised as pursuit of ones own self interest in disregard of the interests (and rights) of others... or whether psychopathy is more properly characterised as a frontal lobe deficit of rationality that leads people to grabby-grab at things that appear to be in their self-interest (narrowly conceived) - but that are actually not the best thing for their interest when their interest is more broadly conceived...
i don't know that I would want to say that the monkey was sensitive to fairness so much as saying that the monkey saw something it wanted and threw a hissy that it didn't have what it wanted. that seems more like a toddler throwing a tantrum that it didn't get the biggest piece of cake than the toddler who accepts they didn't get the biggest piece of cake - but accepts that is fair because they themself dissected the portions...
i've been thinking about how many people in these parts seem to think that life is competitive and it's all about competitive advantage over others.how many people seem to crave power because power is the power to cut the cake and choose the distribution of portions, too.
i suppose that might be in their own interests in some very narrow conception of their own interests...
but the idea of cooperative or collabotative activity to genuine mutual benefit / advantage seems very alien, indeed.
it seems like any potentially cooperative / collaborative / mutally beneficial project is swiftly undermined as this, that, or the other party sees that they can profit their own short term self interest (and screw the world over, to boot) by taking more than their fair share just because they can...
i wonder if it's because of the relative proximity of gold rush frontier take your chances and strike it lucky sort of a mentality from the 'ruling classes'. i expect that's it...
i see why people are obsessed with the idea of how in earth cooperative activity is possible at all...
in the face of...
uh...
such places as New Zealand.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1097495
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20180212/msgs/1098077.html