Re: virus: (un)selfishness

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Tue, 22 Apr 1997 15:10:00 +0100


Martz wrote:
>On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Robin Faichney <r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk> wrote:
>>Isn't there anyone else on the list who, like me, questions
>>the meaningfulness of "ultimate motivation"? Where
>>people say things like "every human action is ultimately
>>selfish" do they think that is or ever will be testable?
>
>Not now. Maybe with some breakthroughs in neuroscience.

Wouldn't that be phrenology, rather than neuroscience? :-)

>>Ultimately, for me, nothing is *either* selfish *or*
>>unselfish, because the self is a fiction.
>
>That's a whole 'nother debate.

No it's not, it's the same one. How can neuroscience or
phrenology or any analysis of motivation locate something
that doesn't really exist? What does "selfishness" mean
if there's no self?

Robin