Why should I care what you think?
 

Throughout life we develope ideas, philosoplies and beliefs that we base our life on. We (humans) tend to want to get others to agree and validate those ideas. Why? Is it to explore our own belief structure through trial? To lead others or to belong to a group? We want to share those things so others can try them?
Why?

Am I allowed to agree here?

lol
I'm with ya.

There's a difference between wanting others to agree or validate your ideas, and simply expressing who you are, sharing it, and gaining realization and definition of who you are by interacting with those who have different views. We learn more with those who aren't like us than we do with those we have things in common with.

Because we believe the ideas are either the correct way to believe, or we think they are the correct way, and therefore everyone else should go along with our beliefs.

I think I have to disagree, I know for a fact that probably many of my beliefs/ideas/theories are wrong. I am still compelled to let others hear them, perhaps just because I can, but I think its more along the lines of maybe.. just maybe my idea could be just part of an idea that will go along with another persons..

whether both ideas are wrong maybe we could use that information for leads into another theory.

Of course almost all my theories have to deal with metaphysics and/or religions.

partly because throughout our lives, its our new theory on a perspective and we feel it to be correct, and the more that think so to, the better they will feel believing in it.

There's also the idea that if they understand where you're coming from, the theory can evolve... be it get torn down and rebuilt, or just more elaborate... its hard to come up with a new idea alone compared to a group.. and its a lot easier to have a deep discussion with such theories in a group than to yourself.

Memmes explain this perfectly. Self replicating aspects of culture passed on through imitation, they seek to spread, kind of like a mind virus.

Social Interaction

Part of the reason that I want to share what I believe is because saying it aloud reinforces it in my mind that I believe it.

Is it any wonder that Jehovah's witnesses are so adamant about their beliefs? They voice them frequently and so it reinforces in their own mind just what it is they believe.

To expound on TheKak's post:
Memes.

Lets say you, Chuck, have a brilliant philosophy that doesn't encourage you to share it.

Meanwhile, Bob has a brilliant philosophy that encourages himself to share it.

All things being equal, Alice is more likely to get exposed to and start believing in Bob's philosophy than she is to start believing in Chuck's philosophy.

Ideas, or complexes of ideas, that, by their nature, encourage their own spread, will be more common than otherwise equivilent ideas or idea complexes that do not.

Part of the reason we listen is to be heard. If we didn't at least pretend to pay attention to others, nobody would do the same for us. We ened other people for our very survival. You don't see many, if any, people in the modern world living alone and relying on no one else for food, clothing, etc.

Socialization is necessary to fulfill our wants and desires. Trading information can instill trust, and feigning or feeling interest can raise other's opinions of us. Look at how hard life is for people who are truly antisocial. They live out in the woods and have little contact with their fellow men. You can bet no one helps them out if they have a problem, and they must not get laid too often either.

Two thoughts on this:

1. We have an embedded, almost instinctual desire to "figure everything out". I don't know where this insatiable desire comes from, but it seems to be very powerful in humans - the "thirst for knowledge".

Just as we'd expect to find exponentially increased processing power by clustering computers together, I think that the natural tendency of people sharing thoughts leads to a "whole that is greater than the sum of its parts" or "The One".

2. It is our deep desire to again be "one" that makes us feel the need to share thoughts...

Each of us struggle with the feelings of disunity - that is that we are NOT one - "I am alone, so I must figure everything out for myself" or "My ideas have to be right, because they're all I have to describe MY reality". This provides the INDIVIDUAL motivation to seek answers independantly. Given that each INDIVIDUAL then also has the desire to be a part of something larger than themselves (The One) makes a perfect "being". Does that make sense? Its just more efficient if all the "parts" have a motivation to "know everything", then that will contribute immessurably to the knowledge of the "One".

It wouldn't work though if we didn't share ideas.

Thekak said the word - culture. After 3 anthropology classes, this stuff has been beaten into my head. And what tiberry said - "whole that is greater than the sum of its parts".

What makes humans so amazing is that each person only needs to know a fraction of the combined cultural knowledge. And with language we have the ability to communicate the new knowledge we acquire - pass it on so that it becomes cultural knowledge and not individual knowldge, which wont be much good once you die.

I don't have any quotes or referenced sources to back me up on this, but I believe it is part of human nature to always seek approval from others.
Maybe I'm totally wrong about this, but I think it's logical to say that as humans we are social beings. And as such, we naturally seek to be part of a group rather than to stand alone---hence the reason we give so much importance to whether others agree with our views and ideas and to their general opinion of us.

Because if people never tried to share their views and ideas, we would still be living in the stone age.

Actually, it isn't language that separates humans from the other animals. Writing is what does it. Even cave men had a primitive form of "spoken" communication. On the down side, people tend to think that just because something has been published that it's true.

Indeed

prosequence: you need to get into business school or do a leadership camp or something. there are a number of things that groups of people can accomplish that individuals could never. and the ant hierarchy (queen/drones) is not always the best way to go about forming a team.

We don't need to look for answers outside of ourselves, although outside interaction (discussion with others) assists us to the answers of Who We Are.