CompuServe Messages

Robert, Would it suprise you to know that one can share the same view "I swear by my life and love of it that I will live for the sake of no man and ask no man to live for the sake of mine" and still have an altruism as a value. I bet it would. Course I don't agree with your blanket statement that it is virtuous to give away that which you care about. That is way too simplistic. Which is part of the problem with your definition, you see it through the definition of Ann Rand rather than in its true light. Acts of altruism, which I've explained are for a greater good or cause. Not an act which is forced or subordinated on anyone but given freely by an individual as an honorable act. I say No to all your statements as well because they aren't about altrusim. I have explained it but for some reason you seem to prefer Ann Rand's definition which is false. So you can keep on about it, but you're pretty far off the mark. James has concluded that human motivation is all self centered, which is egocentrism, but he is comfortable with it. I don't know whether you are or not. There seems to be more room in your agruments for altruism, but I'm not sure if that's just because you don't want to come out and say you're egocentric or that you really don't understand altruism. From your comments it would seem you don't understand the meaning of it. However I'm not going to pursue this debate further. You can keep hammering away if you want to but I would suggest that you read up on it further. Then you can simply state I'm egocentric or I think altruism makes sense in some contexts. Simple really. John