Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Miscellany Altruism
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
how can we misinterpret the intention of that mother bird? As long as the bird can't tell us her intention, I prefer to speak of instictive behavior. There is too high a risk of anthropomorphism otherwise. To me, this has nothing to do with value judgment.
I do not refute either of the definitions you quote. They are beautiful as such. The problems start when you try to apply them to concrete cases. Let's take person A, who donates $1000 to a charity. Person B, who likes A, considers this really altruistic, while C, who has a grudge against A, suspects that A has acted out of guilt from some earlier misdeed... You might object that A could have donated anonymously. But then the question of judging his/her altruism would never arise..
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,351Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 580 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 22ddrinnan 1
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,549tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,918Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org