Is it bad to be a Cynic? How are cynics viewed? Or how do people who are not cynics view cynics?
I am defining “cynic” as: A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.
Given that definition (it’s not what I’d call a cynic) no ... since I do not accept the existence of true altuism I have to believe that eveyone has an agenda is therefore essentially sellfish, not that that stops me admiring people who do amzing (and apparently selfless) things. Not sure I know how to answer the other 2 questions.
Well, I don’t believe that people are always motivated by selfishness. A lot of the time, most of the time, sure. But always? No, and believing such a thing is liable to make one overly pessimistic and indeed ungrateful for life’s small gifts.
Given that definition (it’s not what I’d call a cynic) no ... since I do not accept the existence of true altuism I have to believe that eveyone has an agenda is therefore essentially sellfish, not that that stops me admiring people who do amzing (and apparently selfless) things. Not sure I know how to answer the other 2 questions.
Well, I don’t believe that people are always motivated by selfishness. A lot of the time, most of the time, sure. But always? No, and believing such a thing is liable to make one overly pessimistic and indeed ungrateful for life’s small gifts.
Or are we not simply aware of our selfish motives when we think we are behaving altruistically? Is there any room left for altruism if one applies reductionism to behaviour?
I am not sure why believing that selfishness might be responsible for the illusion of altruism is a pessimistic act. Knowing that I love my children because they will carry my genes into the next generation doesn’t make me any more ungrateful for having them than believing that I love them because they are some kind of life’s gift.
Or are we not simply aware of our selfish motives when we think we are behaving altruistically? Is there any room left for altruism if one applies reductionism to behaviour?
I am not sure why believing that selfishness might be responsible for the illusion of altruism is a pessimistic act. Knowing that I love my children because they will carry my genes into the next generation doesn’t make me any more ungrateful for having them than believing that I love them because they are some kind of life’s gift.
OK, but then we’re getting into a definitional question about what counts as altruism.
OK, but then we’re getting into a definitional question about what counts as altruism.
Not much, in my opinion. The only true act of altruism is probably only possible when we don’t know we are helping somebody. But in that case even a tree could be altruistic when it creates a shadow for an exhausted traveler.
The only true act of altruism is probably only possible when we don’t know we are helping somebody. But in that case even a tree could be altruistic when it creates a shadow for an exhausted traveler.
Exactly; for that reason I don’t think it’s a good definition. Actually, what you’ve done is to define something odd called a ”true act of altruism”.
I’d prefer to stick with the ordinary word “altruism”, where we can do altruistic things while knowing we’re doing them.
It might also be possible that trying to define altruism is as useless as trying to define other terms which we now know don’t carry any value, e.g. a “sin” . As we learn more about our universe some words and terms will gradually lose their meaning.
Hmm ... I think altruism is just doing something good for someone else. There may be better and worse sorts of altruism, depending on how much the action benefits oneself as well, but they appear to me all to be altruistic acts nonetheless.
I don’t agree with the proposed definition. Cynicism is not just about thinking people are motivated by selfishness, accepting for the purposes of debate here that everyone is, then this is insufficient to identify who is cynical, unless everyone is in which the term becomes useless apart from rhetorically.
Here is my stab a cynic questions the motives of the person first before the argument - on issues with which the cynic disagrees, (compared to questioning the person after the argument where the person has not budged on points on which a skeptic - not a cynic - would think are incontrovertible -the skeptic may be mistaken about this - but they are not a cynic if they question the person after failing to convince and /or be convinced otherwise)
From the point of view of someone who is often referred to as a cynic, I would say that a cynic is just an optimist that knows better. It is the fact that I am only half joking when I say this that makes me a cynic.
Altruism is the ability/willingness to meet a need whether that need is linked the altruist or not. There are lots of altruists out there. So for a cynic to think that one for example responds to a question on this forum that was asked by an inquirer purely out of selfishness is simply wrong.
