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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (60742)	10/2/2002 5:39:09 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

What you wrote is absolutely true; as it is also true, I have no doubt whatever, that they felt genuinely bad about our having been so inconvenienced. They are considerate people, not only to friends whom they want to keep, but to everyone. Everyone reading this has helped people when there was no expectation of reward. I originally wrote out some personal examples of such acts toward strangers, but deleted them. The thing is, if a situation makes one feel bad for a person, it is normal, imo, to try to remedy it. "I feel sorry for her" means something, and it isn't all about making self-interested calculations. There is one way in which it can be 'defined' as about self interest. The obvious point that was a big insight when one was sixteen but is now a bore, that you do it because it makes you feel better, establishes... well, it establishes that obvious point. That feeling better is a reward, so seeking it represents self-interest. The gentile teacher who entered the gas chamber with his Jewish students was self-interested because he couldn't bear to abandon them, by this definition. Of course some people don't feel good when they do good deeds; they feel good when they do the opposite. Those are different kinds of people in a significant way, just as, imo, the Never Explain, Never Apologize people are very different people from those who believe explanations and apologies are due those whom one has harmed. To make them feel better. And one wants to give them also because one is, in fact, sorry.