Quote:
Originally posted by hiredgun
but your guilt comes from some value other than selfishness.
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Now we are getting into all sorts of behavioral questions....beyond the scope of this thread.
But in essence, my feeling of guilt (like all feelings) have biological origins. The reason we experience certain feelings as positive and others as negative is due to biological reasons. "Enjoyment" comes from maximising the positives and minimizing the negatives.
Guilt is one of the biological mechanisms used to give us a sense of "morality". As is the pleasurable feeling of "having done the right thing".
In this sense "virtue is it's own reward". We are biologically wired to enjoy "doing the right thing". This is where our internal "moral compass" comes from.
I eat food so as to avoid the pains of hunger. I make firends so as to avoid the pains of loneliness. I act "morally" so as to avoid the pains of guilt.
No doubt people will disagree with me, but this isn't really the thread for this debate.