Why be good?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Elohist, Feb 12, 2017.

  1. Elohist Registered Member

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    24
    Why should we be good?

    You may give answers like:

    -Because I believe in God and I want to join him in heaven.
    -Because I believe all I give will be returned to me in this life (Because I will thrive if I do).
    -Because I can relate to people's suffering and I help them because I would like someone to help me if I were suffering.
    -Because I just feel like it.
    -Because I have faith in the fact that me doing so improves society, even if it is a very small improvement.

    Or you may not.

    All your answers are welcomed.
     
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  3. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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  5. Elohist Registered Member

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    Do we assume it is real and be good just-in-case?
     
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  7. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    ....something about satisfying your lover comes to mind....there is nothing quite like the sweet softening smell of orgasmic sweat to fill the nostrils and soothe the soul.
    ...................
     
  8. Elohist Registered Member

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    Don't we seek our pleasure most of the time without regard for our partner's?
     
  9. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    I try to be kind to people because it is less stressful. Interactions occur so much more smoothly and pleasantly if conducted on polite terms. Am I "good" though in the sense of goin out of my way to help people? If I see someone in need I do, and I do so to solve a problem or alleviate suffering. To me it is a given to do this, just as I would want someone to do it for me. I have the power to resolve an issue for someone. Why not do it?
     
    Xelasnave.1947 and sculptor like this.
  10. Elohist Registered Member

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    24
    Why spend your time doing it?

    You have the power to resolve many issues of many people, why just help those that come into your attention? Why not go out and seek people in need of help?
     
  11. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    If it weren't for Karma I'd torture people for pleasure and post the videos on the internet and make money doing so.
     
  12. Elohist Registered Member

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    Do you believe the universe is watching you and you fear its justice for your wrongdoings?
     
  13. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    You guessed it.
     
  14. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    We?
    I only speak for me
    so
    NO
    not now
    not ever
     
  15. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Seriously?

    curiouser and curiouser and kinky on top of that...........
     
  16. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    I don't have the time or finances to go out and seek people in need. I help only those I come across in my daily life. What's so bad about that? Do you help people in need?
     
  17. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    5,134
    There's pleasure to morallity
     
  18. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    Being able to help someone makes ME feel good. But why stop at humans? I try to help any animal in need.

    After watching a large male Silverback standing by the injured child who had fallen into a gorilla compound and defended him from younger, more aggressive males.. And the female gorilla who saved and actually carried a child to the zookeepers.

    http://myfox8.com/2016/05/30/dramatic-video-mother-gorilla-rescues-3-year-old-boy-who-fell-into-pit-in-1996/

    And the Orangutan who saved a drowning ducking, which had become separated from its mother? And this actual communication via sign language between a deaf girl and an Orangutan.

    Whereas most animals will defend their own troup, all hominids display voluntary assistance to other species in a more or less selective way. Bonobo chimpanzees are probably the most peaceful and generous species on earth.

    IMO, killing a hominid (all related to humans) is tantamount to murder. They are the ones needing OUR help, before they go extinct.
     
    Ophiolite likes this.
  19. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    5,902
    I'll go with "Because I just feel like it". Of course that raises the question - Why do I feel like it?

    I think that it's social instinct. Human beings evolved to live in cooperative groups. One of the things that makes human beings such a powerful force in the world is their ability to work together to achieve more effect than individuals could by themselves. We see the fruits and success of that from hunting mammoths with spears through governments and exchange economies, to the existence of science and engineering.

    Group-coherence has evolutionary selective value.

    So human beings can be expected to have a tendency to want to have the approval of those around them, to adhere to the expectations of their group and to behave as their group wants them to behave, to come to the aid of other group members in need, and to behave according to social reciprocity.

    We possess a capacity for hugely complex spoken language to transmit information, increase group solidarity and to organize future group actions. We come with a built-in tendency to imagine that others of our kind possess psychologies and motivations like our own. Not only do we have a very subtle ability to read other people's emotional states, we are predisposed to care a great deal about those states.
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2017
  20. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    That is true. However sometimes ,for reasons of practicality we cannot take the obvious and direct route.

    Again , any achievement or deed that does not "feel good" feels hollow and a waste of time.

    It is an interesting question whether we benefit from analysing our motives/instincts or whether we try to educate them through practice.(brain washing?)
     
  21. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    IMO, it is an extension of the natural law of "movement in the direction of greatest satisfaction". In physics this is an unconscious tendency, but I see no reason why this could not be extended to any thoughtful beneficial action.
     
  22. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    I go for all five
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2017
  23. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Because the Alpha Unit on planet Minatarses commands that I do so otherwise I would eat everyone in my path. This is clearly set out in the Command Verse page 3.
     
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