1. Name one thing that has always fascinated you.
One thing that has always fascinated me is human nature. I may have called it by some other name when I was a little girl but I always found myself questioning the acts and motives of people around me, even going as far as asking my parents about god's ulterior motives because hey, if we were created in his image and we turned out human, some part of god must be human too, right?
The flaws in human nature are what attract me most. We were taught the difference between right and wrong and things seemed so simple in theory. Don't do bad things, stick to doing good things and all will be well. However, at a certain age, children start thinking about matters that may seem juvenile but have more adult intent behind them. They start to lie and hurt others when clearly, this was not the way they were supposedly taught to behave. There's something to be said about manipulation and self-gain, as these two seem to go hand in hand. Could they be learning from what they see and doing as others do, thinking "If this is how a grown-up does it, then it must be right". Again, another flaw in human nature. The perceptions of certain individuals are ridiculously (I will try to limit the judgment) different from ours and who's to say what is right and what is wrong anymore? It's the same issue with measuring intelligence, don't you think? The standards we set are different from the standards other set so for all we know, all the "virtuous" things we set out to do are deemed immoral by others and vice versa.
So I decided, earlier on, while I was younger and much more idealistic, to take psychology as my major so I could figure out what was going on in everyone else's heads and to understand what was going on in mine. What pushes us to do what we do? Is there really such a thing as a selfless act? Again, the cynic I turned out to be has read and subscribed to an article I read which adamantly claimed that no, there are no true acts of selflessness in this world. Doing nice things for others without outward rewards are still selfish because we may not gain something material in return but the feeling it gives us is the trade-off. This entire life is an exchange. Unless you've lived majority of your life as a hermit, interaction with other people is an ongoing give and take situation. You do something good, and in return, you feel better about yourself, which is, in fact, a selfish thing. So many theories and yet, not one clear answer save for "it's human nature," which isn't really an answer.
One thing that has always fascinated me is human nature. I may have called it by some other name when I was a little girl but I always found myself questioning the acts and motives of people around me, even going as far as asking my parents about god's ulterior motives because hey, if we were created in his image and we turned out human, some part of god must be human too, right?
The flaws in human nature are what attract me most. We were taught the difference between right and wrong and things seemed so simple in theory. Don't do bad things, stick to doing good things and all will be well. However, at a certain age, children start thinking about matters that may seem juvenile but have more adult intent behind them. They start to lie and hurt others when clearly, this was not the way they were supposedly taught to behave. There's something to be said about manipulation and self-gain, as these two seem to go hand in hand. Could they be learning from what they see and doing as others do, thinking "If this is how a grown-up does it, then it must be right". Again, another flaw in human nature. The perceptions of certain individuals are ridiculously (I will try to limit the judgment) different from ours and who's to say what is right and what is wrong anymore? It's the same issue with measuring intelligence, don't you think? The standards we set are different from the standards other set so for all we know, all the "virtuous" things we set out to do are deemed immoral by others and vice versa.
So I decided, earlier on, while I was younger and much more idealistic, to take psychology as my major so I could figure out what was going on in everyone else's heads and to understand what was going on in mine. What pushes us to do what we do? Is there really such a thing as a selfless act? Again, the cynic I turned out to be has read and subscribed to an article I read which adamantly claimed that no, there are no true acts of selflessness in this world. Doing nice things for others without outward rewards are still selfish because we may not gain something material in return but the feeling it gives us is the trade-off. This entire life is an exchange. Unless you've lived majority of your life as a hermit, interaction with other people is an ongoing give and take situation. You do something good, and in return, you feel better about yourself, which is, in fact, a selfish thing. So many theories and yet, not one clear answer save for "it's human nature," which isn't really an answer.
