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Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

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Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#61

Post by white_dragon88 »

supertofu wrote: post #59
Trasmatta wrote: post #2

Having a higher than average amount of empathy seems to be a disadvantage in many ways. It seems in many cases to be correlated with anxiety and depression. It can be difficult for people with high levels of empathy to recognize the boundaries between their own self and the thoughts and feelings of others. As a kid I was highly empathetic, and it's something I've struggled with my entire life. It never really felt li…

Empathy, also called compassion or karuna in Buddhism, is one of the most sublime mental states that exist. The trick is to learn how to experience compassion without also wounding yourself. This is what Buddhist practice teaches you how to do.

Basically don’t be a schmuck. Common sense should dictate one’s practice well.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#62

Post by SpodGaju »

joshyeager wrote: post #25
SpodGaju wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't numb it, master it and let it lead under control. Empathy is an incredible virtue, but it must be disciplined. Disciplined empathy is no longer empathy. And it is no longer virtuous. You are close to understanding, but keep going. Giving birth and nourishing, making without possessing, expecting nothing in return. To grow, yet not to control: This is the mysterious virtue. Chapter 10, Dao De Ching

Rather than saying "You are close to understanding, but keep going", it would be more helpful to explain why you think that disciplined empathy is no longer empathy. I agree with the previous poster, but I'm curious to learn what you mean.

Thank you!

We have domesticated wolves so much that we call them dogs now. So we could actually call dogs "disciplined wolves", yes?

Like a "wolf" behaves differently than a "discipline wolf", "empathy" will express differently than "disciplined empathy". It is inauthentic.

You cannot change something and say it is the same thing.

Did that help?

If you are interesting, Chuang Tzu, a Daoist sage, had a lot to say about this.

http://nothingistic.org/library/chuangtzu/chuang23.html

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#64

Post by [deleted] »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #51
joshyeager wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than saying "You are close to understanding, but keep going", it would be more helpful to explain why you think that disciplined empathy is no longer empathy. I agree with the previous poster, but I'm curious to learn what you mean.

Being vague as all get out is really on brand for advice from the Dao De Ching.

[deleted]

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#65

Post by amelius »

Trasmatta wrote: post #2

Having a higher than average amount of empathy seems to be a disadvantage in many ways. It seems in many cases to be correlated with anxiety and depression. It can be difficult for people with high levels of empathy to recognize the boundaries between their own self and the thoughts and feelings of others. As a kid I was highly empathetic, and it's something I've struggled with my entire life. It never really felt li…

A different way to think about it: if you play soccer (or any game) with too much empathy, you will make own goal after own goal to please your opponent. Nobody wants that, of course, so in reality you're not being empathic enough.

Being too empathic has different problems if it also makes you shy. Shy people are scary, because people can't read you. It is important to internalize this. Again, this makes shyness not just your problem: it's their problem too. So you have to be more empathic about it.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#66

Post by vdnkh »

cletus wrote: post #16

Quoted post unavailable.

This is a hilarious/sad generalization of a country of ~330 million people masquerading as an investigation into stress. I get the impression that you started with the point you wanted to make - "never trust an American" - and then stumbled backwards from there into a very rigorous exploration of the the cause and effect of stress.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#67

Post by SpodGaju »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #51
joshyeager wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than saying "You are close to understanding, but keep going", it would be more helpful to explain why you think that disciplined empathy is no longer empathy. I agree with the previous poster, but I'm curious to learn what you mean.

Being vague as all get out is really on brand for advice from the Dao De Ching.

The vagueness of the Dao De Ching is not in the book, it is in reader.

It is not myself that creates the Dao, but I can thank you for creating the Dao!

When a superior person hears of the Tao, She diligently puts it into practice. When an average person hears of the Tao, he believes half of it, and doubts the other half. When a foolish person hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud at the very idea. If he didn’t laugh, it wouldn’t be the Tao.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#68

Post by OneLeggedCat »

Trasmatta wrote: post #2

Having a higher than average amount of empathy seems to be a disadvantage in many ways. It seems in many cases to be correlated with anxiety and depression. It can be difficult for people with high levels of empathy to recognize the boundaries between their own self and the thoughts and feelings of others. As a kid I was highly empathetic, and it's something I've struggled with my entire life. It never really felt li…

Reading the replies to you, it's obvious that some of the perfected alpha libertarians typical of HN have shown up, and as often happens, they don't really know wtf they're talking about. But they do greatly enjoy expressing their overly abstracted, overly generalized, overly confident opinions that arise from brains that enjoy a hyper-filtered perception of the world. Perhaps you should just simply change your brain to be more like them?

sigh. Anyway I empathize with you.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#69

Post by smordistan »

white_dragon88 wrote: post #61
supertofu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Empathy, also called compassion or karuna in Buddhism, is one of the most sublime mental states that exist. The trick is to learn how to experience compassion without also wounding yourself. This is what Buddhist practice teaches you how to do.

Basically don’t be a schmuck. Common sense should dictate one’s practice well.

Dostoyevsky's The Idiot comes to mind.

Re: Altruism under stress: cortisol negatively predicts charitable giving

#70

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

SpodGaju wrote: post #67
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being vague as all get out is really on brand for advice from the Dao De Ching.

The vagueness of the Dao De Ching is not in the book, it is in reader. It is not myself that creates the Dao, but I can thank you for creating the Dao! When a superior person hears of the Tao, She diligently puts it into practice. When an average person hears of the Tao, he believes half of it, and doubts the other half. When a foolish person hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud at the very idea. If he didn’t laugh,…

While I can appreciate a well crafted burn as much as the next guy, that was really taking the long way around.
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