This in no way contradicts what I’ve said.
Life is about you. It's your life. That doesn't mean being selfish, though. That's a common misconception in the West.
Not thinking in terms of conspiracies doesn't mean not recognizing them when you see them.
When you realize it’s all about you, you gain the freedom to truly consider other people’s perspective. There is no better starting point for helping others.
Most contradictions aren't contradictions at all.
I don't agree. The starting point for helping others is realizing people need help. You can have done nothing to better yourself other than seeing that there is evil in the world and begin to address it. It is true you will likely grow to know yourself better in the process, but there is no such thing as self-actualization in this life. That would require us to understand everything about what makes us human and make consistently wise decisions as a result. Sometimes it's all we can do just recognize an evil and speak put against it. Naming it is the first step to combating it. Pretending like it doesn't exist to work on "self" is a dead end.
Be careful not to become the evil you seek to fight by imposing your idea of what’s good onto others. Beware becoming a do-gooder. Your idea of help might be a disservice to others without you even realizing it (because that requires you fully understand yourself and your intentions).
I believe there is a summum bonum that exists outside of me and is discernible. I could be wrong about a particular case or situation, but there is always a highest good.
That’s a beautiful belief. But it's just a belief.
hardly. 5,000 years of humanity seeking the best ways to act and be demonstrates that there are highest goods in all kinds of areas of human performance (and it is consistent across cultures). Read The Abolition of Man for an explanation of that effect.
That’s a beautiful belief, too, but it depends on the context. A few thousand years is not much of a change in context. Plus, even for that short period of time, it would be easy to find counterexamples. "The best" is a bold statement that is most likely incorrect in most contexts.
🙄 "...a few thousand years is not much..."
Five thousand years is only 1.7% of the time that Homo sapiens has existed. That's not much.
nice belief.
Now you get it 🤭
I pointed you to a scholarly source and you negated it with nonsense. So no, no "get it."
