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Topic: The Cynic's Conundrum (Read 858 times) |
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David Lucifer
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Enlighten me.
  
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The Cynic's Conundrum
« on: 2005-09-23 20:56:36 » |
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Robin Hanson (inventor of idea futures <http://www.ideosphere.com/>) has recently published a (very short) essay on cynicism <http://hanson.gmu.edu/metacynic.html>. The cynic's conundrum is that when cynics apply cynicism to themselves (or others like them) they come out looking like losers more than people with true insight. Quite interesting.
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hkhenson@rogers...
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back after a long time
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Re: virus: The Cynic's Conundrum
« Reply #3 on: 2005-09-26 06:35:16 » |
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--- David Lucifer <david@lucifer.com> wrote:
>
> Robin Hanson (inventor of idea futures
> <http://www.ideosphere.com/>) has recently published
> a (very short) essay on cynicism
> <http://hanson.gmu.edu/metacynic.html>. The cynic's
> conundrum is that when cynics apply cynicism to
> themselves (or others like them) they come out
> looking like losers more than people with true
> insight. Quite interesting.
Indeed. Insightful.
I have a suggestion that might be considered. As you
can probably guess it involves evolutionary
psychology.
In the past "realist" has been difficult to
distinguish from "cynic." Both tended to take a
similar dim view of humanity.
Realism based on EP would be distinguished from
outright cynicism, in that it seeks to understand
humans and work with their psychological traits as
they were shaped in our evolutionary past.
For example, humans in general and the posters on this
list in particular seek status. There is darn good
reason for this. It is rooted in the Stone Age and
humans, especially male humans, are highly motivated
in this direction. You can see this trait in action
anytime a lawyer making a million dollars a year gives
it up for a judgeship that pays 1/5th as much but has
higher status.
This psychological trait (and the neurological
mechanism it depends on) applies to everything from
net posting to drug addiction.
Humans are not often aware of what motivates them.
For example, I have am aware only at a theoretical
level of what has motivated me to get up in the middle
of the night and write this post. But even an
intellectual level insight into human motivations
could be better than looking like losers.
There are lots of places this thread could go, for
example into zero sum and non-zero sum styles of
seeking status.
Now all we need is a good acronym. EPR (ep-rah) would
be the obvious. Realist-Evolutionary Psychology, or
R-EP (rep) might work, but I am open to suggestions
especially a brand new coined name.
Keith Henson
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html
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