Thank you for the comment. Yes, I agree that “doing a good job of this is going to be extremely challenging.” I know it’s been challenging for me just to get to the point that I’ve gotten to so far (which is somewhat past my original post). I like to joke that I’m just smart enough to give this a decent try and just stupid enough to actually try it. And yes, I’m trying to find a rough approximation as a good starting point, in hopes that it’ll be useful.
Thanks for the suggestion about civil damages—I haven’t looked into that, only criminal “damages” (in terms of criminal sentences) thus far. I actually don’t expect that the first version of my calculations, based on my own ethics/values, will particularly agree with civil damages, but it may be interesting to see if the calculations can be modified to follow an alternate ethical framework (one less focused on self-esteem) that does give reasonable agreement.
Regarding masochistic and sadistic pleasure, it depends on how we define them. One might regard people who enjoy exercise as being into “masochistic pleasure.” That’s not what I mean by it. For masochistic pleasure I basically mean pleasure that comes from one’s own pain, plus self-loathing. Sadistic pleasure would be pleasure that comes from the thought of others’ pain, plus self-loathing (even if it may appear as loathing of other, the way I see it, it’s ultimately self-loathing). Self-loathing involves not taking responsibility for one’s emotions about oneself and is part of having a low self-esteem. I appreciate you pointing to the need for clarification on this, and hope it’s now clarified a bit. Thanks again for the comment!
Thank you for the comment. Yes, I agree that “doing a good job of this is going to be extremely challenging.” I know it’s been challenging for me just to get to the point that I’ve gotten to so far (which is somewhat past my original post). I like to joke that I’m just smart enough to give this a decent try and just stupid enough to actually try it. And yes, I’m trying to find a rough approximation as a good starting point, in hopes that it’ll be useful.
Thanks for the suggestion about civil damages—I haven’t looked into that, only criminal “damages” (in terms of criminal sentences) thus far. I actually don’t expect that the first version of my calculations, based on my own ethics/values, will particularly agree with civil damages, but it may be interesting to see if the calculations can be modified to follow an alternate ethical framework (one less focused on self-esteem) that does give reasonable agreement.
Regarding masochistic and sadistic pleasure, it depends on how we define them. One might regard people who enjoy exercise as being into “masochistic pleasure.” That’s not what I mean by it. For masochistic pleasure I basically mean pleasure that comes from one’s own pain, plus self-loathing. Sadistic pleasure would be pleasure that comes from the thought of others’ pain, plus self-loathing (even if it may appear as loathing of other, the way I see it, it’s ultimately self-loathing). Self-loathing involves not taking responsibility for one’s emotions about oneself and is part of having a low self-esteem. I appreciate you pointing to the need for clarification on this, and hope it’s now clarified a bit. Thanks again for the comment!