ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST
What possible reason
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What possible reasons might Abraham Lincoln have had for wanting to put himself to some inconvenience to rescue piglets from a slough? The simplest reason might be to spare himself from the annoying, unpleasant sounds of the squealing piglets and their mother. In the same way, a restaurant customer who finds a squalling baby at the next table might ask to be seated somewhere else. This would be at once a natural and a narrowly self-interested motivation -- the restaurant customer who finds the baby's cries unpleasant isn't doing to alleviate the baby's presumed distress, only getting away from it.. However, Lincoln was in a moving coach. He was not going to be subjected to the piglets' squealings until they drowned; he could have done nothing, and they would have been out of earshot in a minute or two, even at stagecoach speeds. A second reason Lincoln might have rescued the piglets was to bask in the esteem of his fellow passengers. Most people enjoy being admired. Since Lincoln was a politician, he perhaps enjoyed being admired even more than most people do. Admiration can translate into votes, while a strong desire for admiration can be a motive to go into elective politics in the first place. To be sure, Lincoln denies that he rescued the piglets it for an admirable reason, asserting that his own action was purely selfish. This, however, might simply be a pose, assuming the expected modesty of a proper hero.
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squeals. Any person who cultivates the capacity for empathy takes this sort of risk. Nor is it obvious that empathy is "tactically" useful in getting what we want from other people. Some quite non-empathetic individuals, even sociopaths, are socially adept and very good at using others.
However, just as empathy may cause us vicarious pain, it also seems to lend us vicarious pleasure. Many of us keep pets. The singing of songbirds, or the purr of a cat, may be pleasurable in and of themselves. But there is nothing inherently pleasing about the cat walking in circles under your legs because she hears the can opener, or the yipping of a dog who sees you getting the leash to take him for a walk. If we enjoy these things, it must be because we sense our pet's pleasure, and vicariously - empathetically -- share in it.
The same is true of friendship and love. These rank high among life's pleasures, but cannot be experienced without the capacity for empathy. We choose to become close to people, and risk sharing their pain, in order to share their joys and the pleasure of their company. Indeed, even the vicarious pain associated with love seems to have some pleasing element. Love ballads are hardly ever all sweetness and l
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1342
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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