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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2260 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 30, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I read quite a bit of Ayn Rand when I was a bookish teenager. Both her semi-pornographic fiction and also non-fiction essays. They were fun but I'm not ever sure I truly followed. She was like <start, law of identity> and then <virtues of selfishness, here> and kind of left out the middle steps from formal logic to complete human moral system.

But, why do I need to have warm fuzzies about it? Can't I just say self-interest is fine and any guilt I might feel about it is my socially obsessed brain trying to tell me lies and I should only worry about group dynamics in a game theoretical sense?

Apparently you have some sort of idea that living a moral life necessarily includes emotional rewards and excludes guilt. Guilt is a somewhat faulty instinct which, like all instincts, is only a thumbnail sketch of reality’s proper shape; treating emotions as reality has always been a fraught exercise in frustration.

As for warm fuzzies, there is a socioemotional component to the human mind which despairs if not fulfilled. Dunbar’s Numbers say that you should have four to eight really close friends and family you see weekly, to feed your brain.

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