Re: virus: Religions,

Robin Faichney (robin@faichney.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:20:03 +0100


In message <3534CC40.473E68B9@ma.ultranet.com>, Sodom
<sodom@ma.ultranet.com> writes
>I dont think i am confusing the terms, and here i think the mingle, People with
>Empathy tend to be more Altruistic than than those without Empathy.

I'm sure that's true, but altruism and empathy are still
different things. For instance, I think a certain
tendency towards empathy is genetically inherited, but
I'm fairly sure that altruism, as it's generally viewed,
is not. (Though it can be argued that altruism in
some sense could be inherited--see The Origins of Virtue
by Matt Ridley.)

>emotion. of course my problem casues me to bring in every stray cat and dog I
>find,
>but the neuro-chemical reward for helping the less fortunate is worth it.

Isn't it rather the experience of pleasure that motivates
you?

-- 
Robin