No such thing as altruism
27th September 2009
Matthew Taylor (October) should stay in more—and watch The Simpsons, who can teach us everything we need to know about human behaviour and motivation. As Lisa learned, there is no such thing as altruism, because doing a good thing brings us pleasure even if it costs us money. Ultimately, then, we always benefit from our good actions.
Alan Stoddart
Via the Prospect website
Bad science
15th October 2009
Matthew Taylor (October) may be right that “human nature” has undergone a political rethink due—in part—to developments in neurology and evolutionary science. But if you took out all mentions of psychological studies and neuroscience in Taylor’s essay, you would simply have a shorter and clearer statement of his views as they would be without the science. True, he also makes use of behavioural economics, but this involves observing features of life which are closer to politics—namely, behaviour and economics.
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[...] at my piece on brains and ideology in Prospect magazine. Indeed this month’s edition contains a forthright letter from one of the magazine’s own editorial team making this point (is this a first I wonder: an [...]