Maybe I didn’t express it well, but I’m not claiming that some people aren’t intrinsically more compassionate (or selfish, or obedient, or any other personality trait) than others, and thus more likely to balk. That I agree with.
What I’m objecting to is that MoR seems to treat feelings as if they were always there and battling to be felt, like the id and superego vying over the conscious mind—as if people could be compassionate ‘underneath’ the influence of selfishness. But the brain doesn’t work that way: people are compassionate or selfish at any given moment, depending on how their brain fires. One feeling is no more ‘real’ than another.
To say someone is ‘compassionate’ is to say that they will feel/act compassionately more often than an average person, because their brain is wired in a way that causes them to experience more compassion. It’s a description of behavior, not something that people can be ‘inside’.
Maybe I didn’t express it well, but I’m not claiming that some people aren’t intrinsically more compassionate (or selfish, or obedient, or any other personality trait) than others, and thus more likely to balk. That I agree with.
What I’m objecting to is that MoR seems to treat feelings as if they were always there and battling to be felt, like the id and superego vying over the conscious mind—as if people could be compassionate ‘underneath’ the influence of selfishness. But the brain doesn’t work that way: people are compassionate or selfish at any given moment, depending on how their brain fires. One feeling is no more ‘real’ than another.
To say someone is ‘compassionate’ is to say that they will feel/act compassionately more often than an average person, because their brain is wired in a way that causes them to experience more compassion. It’s a description of behavior, not something that people can be ‘inside’.