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Help finding O'ist articles on surviving college?

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  • 2 weeks later...

My field is psychology, and perhaps I am in a very good department, because it isn't as bad as all that... however, this bit is right on:

"Psychologists consider ethics to be totally subjective and believe that what appear to be moral conflicts are due mostly to poor communication. It follows, according to them, that all cultures are morally equal and therefore no one has the right to condemn anyone or hold any firm moral views. (Being “judgmental” is a cardinal sin in contemporary psychology.) There are some exceptions to this; for example, most psychologists consider it appropriate to love altruism and collectivism and to hate capitalism, individualism and America."

There are a couple of exceptions in the faculty, but it stuns me that professors who are normally quite rational, very intelligent scientists allow their brains to dribble out their ears when it comes to things like altruism and individualism.

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This is a great resource. I hope they finish it someday!

4.      Seek out the most rational professors, if you can learn who they are. Here are some suggestions: (a) ask other students what professors they liked and why; (b] check out what books professors are using, by going to the campus bookstore and leafing through the books they are requiring in a given course; © get an advance copy of the syllabus and check out not only the titles of the required books but also the list of required articles and class assignments. For example, if the readings are riddled with post-modernist or multiculturalist books and articles, you can be sure it will be a worthless course. Sometimes you can manage your own education by arranging to do independent study with professors who have something to offer.

As a Humanities student myself, this one is sort of a hit or miss. Last semester I took a course with texts by Voltaire, J.S. Mill, Karl Marx, J.J. Rousseau, Daniel Defoe and S. Freud. Considering the texts, it could have been a hellish leftist experience. Thankfully, I wound up with the most charming British professor who was well schooled in western ideologies and history and explicitly lauded individualism. On the other hand, in a similar course I have this semester, the professor has given us absolutely no historical context for the basis of non-western texts (which of course, makes understanding them much more difficult) and even went so far as to lead the class in a Buddhist meditation so they (I did not participate) could experience the "not-self".

8.    Take responsibility for your own motivation. Do not expect to get motivated automatically by your teachers. Do not let the bad ones demotivate you. Do not stop learning out of disgust. Know the reasons why you are in college and what you expect to get out of it.

I also totally agree. What offends me more than an uninteresting teacher is one who explicitly states, over and over, "I know this is really boring," or some variation, in some attempt to "relate" to students in a cool way. My psychology professor last semester was talking about the operation of the brain and kept saying this. The brain is not boring! *sigh* It's even more offensive when education teachers say this.

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Cole: ...I'm speechless. This:

For the purpose of our study, we prefer a definition that relies on objective, measurable criteria. We characterize a behavior as altruistic when 1) it is directed towards helping another, 2) it involves a high risk or sacrifice to the actor, 3) it is accomplished by no external reward, and 4) it is voluntary.

Heroic altruism involves greater risk to the helper, whereas conventional altruism is not life-threatening to the helper.

   

< - - - Heroic - - - C O N T I N U U M - - - Conventional - - - >

Accompanied with a picture of a Jewish internment camp from the Holocaust?!?!?

Edited by coirecfox
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  The Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute was founded in 1982 by Dr. Samuel P. Oliner and Dr. Pearl Oliner, who recognized the need for more research into the areas of altruism and prosocial behavior.  The Institute was founded with the dual purpose of studying specific examples of heroic and conventional altruism and seeking out ways to enhance altruism and prosocial behavior in society.  The institute's founder and director, Samuel P. Oliner,is a native of Poland and a Holocaust survivor. He is also a Professor of Sociology at Humboldt State University. The Institute's Research Director, Pearl Oliner, is a Professor of Education at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California.

:)

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This might be an appropriate thread to point out that the university that I was attending last year (i've since transfered) had a "Department of Altruism".

:D Oh my God! That is disgusting. It's like they took the definition right out of AS. I really didn't think that they would ever say it as explicitly as that. How anyone can read that and not be disgusted... :)

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The university is located in what I would argue to be the most liberal city in America (the first and only city with a Green Party majority in the City Council). However, the school did have an Objectivist club- although it never met during the year I attended, and it is no longer listed on ARI's website. From what I remember hearing, there were some problems in finding a faculty advisor for the club.

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This might be an appropriate thread to point out that the university that I was attending last year (i've since transfered) had a "Department of Altruism".

Is the barbed wire on the graphic of the main page like a Fruedian(sp.?) slip to the real meaning of altruism. I felt like I was looking at tangible evil when I was viewing that site, like when you see pictures of starving Jews during the Holocaust. It's disturbing. Ignorance is Knowledge. Slavery is Freedom. Altruism is the Moral.

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