What if free choice is an illusion?Manofnofaith wrote:I can answer in two words: Free choice. Even with no emotion, what is the logic behind torturing some poor fucker to death, other than sadism, and isn't that a sort of a emotional state? The reason I don't go into someone's house, tie them to their dining room table, and carve pieces off them with their own kitchen knives while they scream and bleed until they are dead isn't just that the concern over punishment is there. It's that it serves no long term purpose. There might be a different motivation if I was a sadist, but I'm not. Now, it's a somewhat normal human response to have the occasional violent fantasy or brief thought about doing this to someone who is the object of your rage, but not obsessing about it or actually going through with it. And certainly not a stranger. So even with bare logic, there is no excuse that can be given for this behaviour. And that's why I have an absolute lack of empathy for people who do this sort of thing.Animavore wrote:If the guy is a psychopath then it means the part of the brain that produces emotion, ie the amygdala is likely damaged or broke in some way usually showing up blue on a fMRI scan meaning that the person has brain damage.Gawdzilla wrote:The lack of empathy for the suffering of others is a hallmark of serial killers. Living things are just objects to them. :pissed:Clinton Huxley wrote:Aye, that's how Jeffrey Dahmer put in his apprenticeship.JimC wrote:And from what I gather, Clinton, young people who start down this track of animal torture are indeed very likely to commit later crimes against people...
If this is the case then this person can't understand or even know emotion through no fault of his own. Why this angers apparently rational people I just don't understand.
If a person had any other type of brain damage people would be all understanding and would be angry towards another if they tried to make fun or take advantage of them (think of Devs reaction to Lozzers post about the handicapped).
Logically, for me anyway, it would be make more sense to treat psychopaths with the same level of empathy and understanding (and then keep them out of harms way).
Anyway. I await your backlash.
On another note, can Humans be selectively sociopathic? That is, say, a group of soldiers killing the men and raping, torturing and killing the women in an Iraqi family, and then going back home and appearing completely normal, even caring and generous to strangers?
Also, if you can't see what's wrong with harming people or other sentient beings then what's to stop you doing it? And, you mention violent rage but, rage is not behind what psychopaths do. Psychopaths can do these things without their pulse even raising. Their actions are usually done cooly and calmly. They might even start laughing as they do these things like a normal person laughing at Tom and Jerry.
