[WS:] As you know, I am extremely reluctant to use the word "all" so I would say, quite a lot of them - more than idealists can possibly imagine - at least according to George Lakoff who claims that many abstract concepts are metaphors built on basic sensory perceptions. it may or may not be true (it is not possible to verify that) - but I believe this because I tend to be a philosophical nominalist and I have a long standing aversion to idealism.
Wojtek
On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 12:08 PM, // ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
> On Aug 10, 2011, at 11:44 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>>> ravi: "economists Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher wrote in a review
>>> article for Nature that prosocial behavior in nonhuman animals is
>>> “largely restricted to kin groups” making human societies “a huge
>>> anomaly in the animal world.” The economists Samuel Bowles and Herbert
>>> Gintis even went so far as to claim “human cooperation is the result
>>> of human capacities that are unique to our species.”"
>>>
>> [WS:] Is not being anti-social, if not an outright psychopath, a
>> prerequisite of becoming an economist?
>>
>
> :-)
>
>
>> In any case, altruism is basically glorified empathy…
>
>
> Wilson/Sober offer a pretty good working definition of altruism for use in biology (the rare instance of a useful reduction) as actions that increase the fitness of others (in particular non-kin) at the cost of one’s own fitness.
>
>
>> (as all abstract
>> concepts are metaphorical derivatives of sensory perceptions,)
>
>
> You aren’t saying what I think you are saying are you? That all concepts spring from the senses?
>
> —ravi
>
>
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