Asklemmy

43512 readers

1420 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

133

So, do we know what decides if a person develops to become more greedy, agressive and selfish while another becomes altruistic and doesn't care much about wealth and power? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 year ago by catharso@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"my, my! humans! so aggressive."

rape, murder, nukes, war, torture, power, seemingly unlimited greed...

why don't i have that insatiable drive?

can't all be how i was raised, can it?

do you know of any studies or philosophical insights?

thx! 🙂

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

While I'd say altruism is not a virtue the way it is defined in our culture, I will say that who we are is about 50% nature and 50% nurture, and inside we are very different beings for one reason or other. A born sociopath is only human the same as you in visible form, the being is nothing like you. A person who was badly abused and tattoos his face and perpetuates abuse on those around him is completely different from you both. A monk in a monestsry and an Instagram influencer are completely different beings inside, besides some basic neurology that makes them both human. If you could see the being inside every human they'd look as different as Pokémon. That's my philosophical insight.