When I say that people are altruistic, I mean they do it for the internal warm fuzzies.
You can call it a form of egoism, but it still does the exact same good in the world and is as trustworthy as if it were real in some deeper sense (although I don’t think there actually is a deeper sense when you go digging through it).
It is trustworthy and genuine in that some people are wired to get more warm fuzzies, and to know they do, so they reliably act charitable. It’s sort of a capitalistic exchange, but it’s not carefully considered in the way that would imply.
This, along with honesty and I’m sure some other stuff, is what we call “being a good person” and it is pragmatically useful because it gets you loyal friends. That’s why it’s built into most humans at an instinctive level. We can choose whether to cultivate or suppress this instinct and so to become more selfish or more altruistic.
When I say that people are altruistic, I mean they do it for the internal warm fuzzies.
You can call it a form of egoism, but it still does the exact same good in the world and is as trustworthy as if it were real in some deeper sense (although I don’t think there actually is a deeper sense when you go digging through it).
It is trustworthy and genuine in that some people are wired to get more warm fuzzies, and to know they do, so they reliably act charitable. It’s sort of a capitalistic exchange, but it’s not carefully considered in the way that would imply.
This, along with honesty and I’m sure some other stuff, is what we call “being a good person” and it is pragmatically useful because it gets you loyal friends. That’s why it’s built into most humans at an instinctive level. We can choose whether to cultivate or suppress this instinct and so to become more selfish or more altruistic.