Can Greed Be Cured? | David Hume On Avarice
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- čas přidán 28. 07. 2022
- Popular culture is full of media condemning greed as a bad thing. David Hume agrees, but he also has some more unique considerations on the topic in his essay “On Avarice.”
The most interesting question posed is whether or not greed can be cured? Hume believes that it’s hard to find a single example of a person being cured of their greed. Two questions emerge from his point: 1) Are there any counterexamples of people being cured of greed? And 2) Assuming Hume is correct, what then is the point of anti-greed messages if no one can be cured?
I had trouble coming up with examples of people being cured of greed, but as to the second question, I believe anti-greed messages could be preventative. Someone exposed to anti-greed messages might be less likely to go down a path of greed.
Other considerations in the essay include the power of greed as a vice and the type of person greed has infected. #hume #philosophy #greed
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Some overworked and stressed out greedy people have very intense careers. Some will suffer heart attacks, paralysis or other near death experiences. So, they often stop working those careers to enjoy the fact they are still alive and go into alternative medicine or something spiritual or artistic.
I love Stoic philosophy even though I’m a jerk, so I do know the meaning of avarice. Also many moons ago I watched two teenage boys (best of friends) not talk to each other because of a slice of pizza. Lol, I loved that you brought an old memory to surface! No wonder your art is being shared🎉
Pizza can either destroy or strengthen friendships.
I do think some people have an existential crisis when they realize their greed is harming their children or other loved ones (e.g., if a spouse leaves them over their values). It may be pretty rare, but generally I believe people are capable of change if they can admit they have a problem.
I've recently learned what avarice means by reading an English translation of Seneca essays. Not a native English speaker though.
Avarice apparently comes from a nomadic tribe called The Avars who ruled over the panonia, and romania and over many slavs
At least some greedy people get that way because they are coming from a background of extreme financial hardship/insecurity sometime in their past. To borrow a quote from Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind": "as God is my witness... I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk." It's a sort of overcompensation for previous trauma. I know that doesn't necessarily help cure it, but it does help understand it at least sometimes.
I would love to see some videos on other vices.
The first time I came across avarice I was reading Fredrich Nietzsche's "The Gay Science". 14 The things people call Love. I had to google it because I never read that word before. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who had trouble with it. LOL
Avarice and greed are often viewed through the Christian framing of sin in the west. I prefer to think of them in terms of evolutionary resource-seeking behaviors, because I feel that moralized language can cloud our thinking. This doesn't mean that I condone avarice at all, but it's just valuable to be able to bounce between a philosophical and a biological perspective to get a better handle on human nature. Understanding avarice's roots in mate competition (especially between males), social hierarchy, and scarcity mindset can help illuminate how best to approach it in a modern context.
I did not know what Averice means too lmao
Great video! Could you touch on the philosopher John Poinsot and the topic of signs??
I mean... 2 get a comparison of the sheer difference of 1 million to 1 billion, let's use the unit time.. 1 million seconds = 12days.. 1 billion = 31 years! And single individuals own hundreds of billions, more than enough for multiple generations.. not 2 mention that the richest 10% of our global population own 75%+ of the world wealth... while the poorest half holds only 2%.. almost 50% of the world's grain is fed 2 animals and yet 800 million people r suffering from hunger n malnutrition.. etc etc
Point is, human is never short of greed, and it's is most definitely prevalent as we speak..
If people have that much more than enough and people r equally suffering heavily then that's surely greed.
Yeah, we should design systems that incentivize better outcomes for everyone rather than one that predictably produces extreme inequality.
Every time I watch your videos my reading list grows longer.
I hope that's a good thing lol
@@PhilosophyToons It is. Thank you for making these videos
Difference between Avarice and Greed:
Avarice is of wisdom.
Greed is of Goodness.
Avarice seeks not to give to others, whils instead greed seeks to cumulate and with greed one is willing to give to others in order to cumulate more while with avarice there is simply the desire not to spend and not to give (even if there might be profit).
Avarice will always seek to give less and by giving less cumulates. It is wisdom that can bring avarice to spend - one spends if there is necessity.
Greed can Give in order to gain more. Quite often in order to gain more you have to do good to others (hire workers, produce Goods for your everyday needs, etc). Thus what brings a greedy man to open his wallet is the goodness he needs to exercise in order to gain more!
Avarice is not good and will seek to cumulate only by not spending.
The reason that brings us to say that the two concepts are different is that the conditions that bring them to spend resources are different, even if both seek to be rich.
Logical conclusion:
A greedy person will be richer than a person with avarice (on average), the reason for this is that the greedy person will be willing to invest and spend more to gain money.
To note: The greedy person might well be ruined by the folly of his investments while the person with avarice risks being distroyed by the non spending (living in a poor house, not spending for food, using old clothing, saving on medecines, etc). Obviously a wise person with avarice will spend if there is need and save himself from destruction and a greedy person will spend (and even be generous) to secure that his investment give bountiful returns. It is goodness that saves greed!
Avarice is cold and wisdom is cold as well.
Greed is agressive and goodness is aggressive. I would say that greed is hot rather than cold.
Carnagie was probably a greedy person that used goodness. His greed permitted the cumulation of his wealthy. Its avarice that stops you from being a philantropist, Greed can be philantropical for it sees the social advantages of sharing wealth. Greed is very abusive so if Goodness is not used to stall its abusiveness there can be ruin. Workers will be paid well by a greedy person (giving them even top bonuses) because they produce (and if they produce more if paid more the pay will rise), its avarice which will give a pay rise only if forced (thus only if wise).
Tradtional stereotypes:
Avarice - thin and bony (Scrooge)
Greed - Fat and plump (1800 industrialists - fat cats).
I think greed is rare, I think envy is what most people suffer from and is more acceptable in a society where the success of others is ever present on social media. That being said I believe the only examples of greed being cured are when possession and power are forcibly ripped from the individual. Which isn't so much a cure as it is the person's personality adapting to survive. It's probably akin to that saying "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." But swap power with wealth and corrupt with greed for more wealth.