- Laitman.com - https://laitman.com -

Psychologists Against Nature… And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah

In the News (Slon [1]): “Science journalist Matthew Hutson describes in his article in the latest issue of Nautilus Publishing, how scientists have recognized that our ‘default mode’ – is rather selflessness, not selfishness [2]. …

“Willingness person to cooperate with the other can be determined in an experiment called public-goods game… .

“After analyzing ten such experiments, in 2012, Harvard researchers Martin Novak and Joshua Greene found that in most cases people showed selflessness and evolved into a common fund, despite the risk of being left with less money (because you never know what the rest of the players will do). …

“Scientist David Rand from Yale demonstrates the same principle that, acting “from his heart,” man acts unselfishly. He conducted a meta-analysis of more than fifty studies on this topic and confirmed this conclusion. …

“The experiment, which Rand subjected their virtual heroes, was a sophisticated implementation of a prisoner’s dilemma. …

“Back in the 1980s, American political scientist Robert Axelrod, engaged in agent-based modeling, determined that the most probable strategy of behavior in the game, based on the scenario of this dilemma would be the so-called principle of “you give me, I tell you.” That is, everything will begin with cooperation between the prisoners, and all subsequent rounds will be based on the previous behavior of one of them (if one decides to betray the other, the latter will no longer shield him as he again did not make a step forward). …

“Rand also created a population of agents to look at the evolution of their behavior, with single or multiple rounds. In the case of a single round success agent promised a betrayal of his partner; in the case of multiple, it made sense to think about long-term cooperation with them. …

“In one of his other experiments Rand discovered another interesting trend in human behavior. During this experience, participants first played in the prisoner’s dilemma: one group participated in multiple rounds (where, respectively, cooperation prevailed), the other – in a single (in which betrayal often happened). This was followed by playing ‘the public goods game’ with them. It turned out that those who were in the dilemma of cooperating with others, in the second part, invested in the common fund of greater amounts.It turns out, according to Hutson, the norms of human behavior changed during the experiment. This shows that in a world where the pattern of behavior of ‘every man for himself’ (as, for example, it is customary in American corporate culture) is encouraged, it is possible to change the situation. For starters, you can at least introduce a system of incentives and mutual cooperation among employees. Selfless behavior strengthens as a strategy of behavior even in an uncertain situation (for example, when you do not know whether you can trust your partner completely), and as a result becomes the new norm… .”

My Comment: These opinions are completely contrary to the wisdom of Kabbalah [3], to common sense, and the experience of humanity.

In an exchange of letters between Einstein and Freud in 1932, Einstein asked Freud if there were any possibility of directing the development of human beings in such a way that they would be more resistant to psychoses of hatred and destruction?

Part of Freud’s reply to Einstein was “The organism preserves its own life, so to say, by destroying an extraneous one. … For our immediate purpose then, this much follows from what has been said: there is no use in trying to get rid of men’s aggressive inclinations. We are told that in certain happy regions of the earth, where nature provides in abundance everything that man requires, there are races whose life is passed in tranquillity and who know neither coercion nor aggression.I can scarcely believe it and I should be glad to hear more of these fortunate beings.” …

“Anything that encourages the growth of emotional ties between men must operate against war. These ties may be of two kinds. In the first place they may be relations resembling those towards a loved object, though without having a sexual aim. There is no need for psycho-analysis to be ashamed to speak of love in this connection, for religion itself uses the same words: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ This, however, is more easily said than done.”

Freud added, “Wars will only be prevented with certainty if mankind unites in setting up a central authority to which the right of giving judgement upon all conflicts of interest shall be handed over. … (S. Freud, “Why War”)
[188904]

Related Material:
“Take Off The Rose-Colored Glasses!” [4]
You Must Be An Altruist [5]
Freud’s Birthday [6]