What drives us to care so much, about life, about love, about people, about God (or no God), about money, about everything? This isn't a trick question, I just want to know what the driving reason behind it is. Why are we arguing on a philosophy board? What makes anything worth your while?
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Trace all things back....21% Voted for by frndofyaweh, Weydon, Makessenseright, Confessed666, pnktrky. (7 total)
All we do and seek; comes from our need to satisfy self.
If I unselfishly help my grandmother clean her garage; Did I really do it for her, or did I do it to make myself feel like a caring grandson?
If I give my life for you; was it completely an un-selfish act, or do I know in the back of my mind that I will be rewarded with martyrdom in heaven?
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If I help my fellow man with anything, purely because I strive to be un-selfish; Then My motive is to become more unselfish, which is a selfish motive.
Just something I have thought about myself before and so it seems there is always a self based motive for anything, no matter how un-selfish it may appear on the surface.
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Why12% Voted for by Weydon, TeChNoWC, pwincessovfantasy, C-a-s-m-e-r-o-k-u.
Why do you care what the reason is?
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Well...9% Voted for by Kayden S, NovemberRynn, Tweedle Dee.
We care because WE HAVE TO. That's life.
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Because.6% Voted for by NovemberRynn, Tweedle Dee.
Because then time would stand still. And that's boring. Why do we care? That's not the question. It's "How can we not?"
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Humans Care6% Voted for by A Dreamer Awake, Confessed666.
We care about everything for reasons that cannot be explained in few words. We care because we are alive, because we want to be alive, and to live we must comprehend and make decisions. To make decisions, we must care more about one thing or the other being better or more right. The basis of living and existence, of a soul and all humanity, comes from the simple fact that we make decisions by caring more one way than the other. If we didn't do such things, we wouldn't be human. In short, the definition of a human is a creature that cares. We are all this way because that is how our minds work. If our minds worked in any other way, for one, they wouldn't be working, and for two, we wouldn't be human. So, actually, it can be explained in few words. Humans care.
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my opinion of course..6% Voted for by a woman to love, Chanell.
good question i think... We care because we are supposed to . We are supposed to think and form opinion about things . That is why we were given heads for ,not only to wear hats but to actually use it for it's intended purpose....Besides we human strive for a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
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Take a tissue and blow out all the nonsense.Voted for by AnnaK.
Okay, get this, why do you need to know? Rhetorical.
I want to know why you want to know. What does it matter? Do we have to define everything in life? Why is it that us being humans means we have to make a logical explaination as to why things happen for what ever instance in which they happen? I just don't get it.
Anyways.
I'm supposed to offer what I think and give you the opportunity to deny or accept it. So here it goes:
Our drive for basically everthing was the question, right? Right. Well I've begun to consider this question like a cynical would. We have this drive to do everything because if we don't then in the end we'll end up in a pickle jar. If we don't have some sort of motivation then rhetorically the world won't revolve.
In life, everything has a form of fuel. If you need money you get a job. If you need a job you get a car. If you need a car you get insurance. If you need insurance you call an insurance company. If you need the number then you need a phone book. If you need a phone book then you need a residence. If you need a residence then you need a mortgage. If you need a mortage you need credit. If you need..Ect. Get my point?
Probably not.
Our drive to do something comes from the drive to do something else as well. Without the drive to do SOMETHING then you don't have any form of motivation, drive or will to be..Well, anything.
Okay. That was probably confusing. Let me say it in simpler terms. To get anywhere in life you need to want to do so. And that's our drive. To do anything there is want. Wanting, needing, having, and liking. All those attributes tie into everything we, as people do.
That's probably still confusing.
Shuttingupnow.
Love Until Later,
Anna K
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we dont have to care, only for our selvesVoted for by Chanell.
Call me selfish but caring is a load of shit. It personally doesn’t get me a where. But when I care about me it get me far and it strengthens my hearts because it eliminates stress and heart ache. We don’t have to care many choose to under the impression that they have to in reality they don’t.
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metaphysicsVoted for by Carlos The Barlos.
This might just be another example of petty caring that started off being flawed, and ended up getting into politics and causing war or something. I dunno. Why do people 'care'? DO they care? Certainly the lazy populations of the world are intent on not caring. You don't care about stuff you don't know about - if you care naturally because you want to survive, your body would tell you being fat is wrong. All that blubber, you know? And yet people think plain white dempster's bread is good for them. oh, oh no, it's KILLING them, for sure.
maybe you don't care, but you're just a receptor for all the forces that are working on you. simple example, Gravity. complex example, the genes of your species. living moment to moment, propelled by all these forces.
Only rationality can pick up these 'cares' though. I mean, you can be aware of everything but what is 'caring' or maybe I just have never fallen in love.
maybe its the same feeling as having control, or the same feeling as creating something. Maybe 'caring' is the drive to 'art'. Why do we need 'art' or owning things? probably because there's something humans want but don't have. Why do they care about that which they are searching for? Maybe they don't, maybe it's just a drain on all the forces that are propelling them, so it's kind like space melting into negative space.
or something like that.
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simple really.Voted for by Nosferatu.
The instinct for survival is what drives people. An individuals idea of what 'survival' means changes as the circumstances of their life change, but it is the drive for survival that governs your actions.
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Ok.....Voted for by whatever1189.
Well, now i have a similar question... what would happen if everyone stopped wanting, questioning, caring?
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For PleasureVoted for by rob7.
All life forms are programed to seek that which is pleasurable.That which is pleasurable is life sustaning.Eating is a pleasurable experience and we derive necessary nutrients from it.Sex is pleasurale and the species population is increased by it.Arguing on a philosophy board,I assume,gives you a form of pleasure or else you woudn't be doing it.Love has pleasurable aspects to it.Pleasurable experiences are why we do anything.
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I dont know if you will ever get anywhere with this question it is fairly involvedVoted for by TeChNoWC.
Possibilities: 1. Chemical control. I am programmed to 'care'. 2. God. God makes us care, or alternatively, our 'evil nature'. (Please, no theology arguments, this is just keeping it simple). Any other form of mystical or transcendental reason. 3. Neutrality. eg: care for neither/nor, rather just accepting 'this is my fate, I am fated to talk on this forum' or simply 'couldnt give a f**k why or about anything' or not caring about the so called 'worth' displayed in your question (an inert state) with no emotional input whatsoever 4. Or what I see you are swaying towards, psychological egoism. But this raises the question: Why care about myself? What is the underlying drive/motivator for this?
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Here's my thought...Voted for by OrangeMoon.
Life is all we have. I think deep down inside every person wants a life that is rewarding. We want happiness and satisfaction, thus we seek for what we seek. Personally, what would make me happy is being 'a good guy' and having a happy, healthy family. Because this is what I want, I seek for this so that the life that I live will be full and rich, or as I say 'rewarding'.
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it's youVoted for by painter-of-words.
to believe in something it gives you something to stand on, fall back on. Your oppinion is part of you, a specific part of you that makes ya you. {believe in something one must}and to know you believe in something it makes your life seem a little more full in a way like its not just dust in the wind. It's important because it's you
anyways.....why should we care why we care? we just care because we do.....not all questions of the world need and answer some just need to be mysterious(sp)
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SomethingI have nothing to live forVoted for by NaturalSelection.
Therefore, I have nothing to die for
So I'll just carry on living
See, I can be an optimist
But if I had something to live for
Then I'd have something to die for
But I's still carry on living
Until I died -
Unproductive QuestionThese are the sorts of existential questions people ask when they have reflected too much. The answer: you care because certain things are pre-installed in your brain. You can always change your mind to care about other things besides the ones that come by default (pain avoidence, hunger, sex...) There's no operation manual for it, but there's plenty of other examples (other people) to build your goals upon.Voted for by ExpensiveThinker.
If you dont' come up with your own, you could always listen to society. American society (the average of many individuals) values certain things (money, freedom, celebrities, gossip) and other cultures tell you to value other things. But my advice is: don't listen to them and discover your own. Start by copying people you like. -
the futility of existencenothing is really worth the time which is so finite it's maddening that is your own time but what makes us do it a little brake from the inevitability of death something to look back on and to be proud of or just trying to find ppl like you something to feel the voidVoted for by thecornerofacircle.
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caring?when we cease to care, we cease to relate external to internal, when we do that, we cease to find limitations and boundaries in between the self and the external, when that happens, we are merged with all things, when that happens, we become one with all and cease to be, simply put when we cease to care (fully and honestly stop it) we die... (not that this death is the stereotypical horrible doom we might imagine, but thats just my idea)Voted for by hypnorocker.
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Weydon
June 8, 2006
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June 27, 2006
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June 28, 2006
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frndofyaweh
July 4, 2006
Should we still care?
Yes. We should strive for unselfishness. Although this is a self based discipline, It is an action that is contagious and softens the hearts of others.Makessenseright
May 30, 2007
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TeChNoWC
August 4, 2006
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Psychological Egoism
What you are talking about is a philosophical viewpoint known as psychological egoism, which is the belief that people only ever do things with a selfish motivation. It is a fairly valid belief in my opinion, but fairly hard to prove.pnktrky
December 8, 2006
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all about existance
we want to prove that we exist. we do this by caring about certain things and having other ppl react to them. when you do something harmful to others they respond to it, or if it is something of which they would like to happen. in the end the reason we care about anything is to prove to ourselves that we exist. and that in of itself is a selfish motive. so in the end it always goes back to ourselves.Please register or login to comment! It's totally free