In the humanitarian sciences, the notions of “egoism” and “altruism” are usually treated as the opposites. An altruistic self-sacrifice for the common good is always treated as heroic action and is highly appreciated. The most classical examples are the lives of M. Gandhi, A. Schweitzer, Theresa and some others. Therefore altruism has an untainted reputation while egoism is sometimes considered to be one of the “worst”. As A. Waterman puts it, “the pursuit of self-interest is thought to yield a sense of alienation.
Mentality
A person may have a self-schema based on any aspect of himself, including physical characteristics, personality traits and interests, as long as they important to his self-definition. Once people have developed a schema about themselves, there is a strong tendency for that schema to be maintained by a bias. This is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Some cognitive biases are a "by-product" of human processing limitations.
Du bist lustig, siehst sympathisch aus und trotzdem hast du einfach kein Glück mit den Männern. Es klingt schockierend, doch es ist wissenschaftlich bestätigt: Je intelligenter eine Frau ist, desto schwieriger ist es für sie, einen Partner zu finden. Man mag es nicht glauben, doch ein Experiment von Forschern der […]
Psychotherapy East and West The following text consists of excerpts from Alan Watts’ book “Psychotherapy East and West”(1961) Psychotherapy and Liberation If we look deeply into such ways of life as Buddhism and Taoism, Vedanta and Yoga, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in […]
Excerpt from “I am free” by David Icke, photo “Austrian communists” …Oh, I’m a Christian, a Muslim, a Socialist, a Republican, a Pagan. We have to be something instead of being someone – ourselves. We also ask people we meet what they “do” for a living because we think this […]
An Attempt to describe the Austrian Mentality by Alexandra Umfahrer Edited by Galina Toktalieva Photo by editor I`m Austrian and I love my country. Nevertheless, some things go wrong and I want to criticize them by means of loving criticism. To assign a general mentality to a nation can easily […]
As I am quick reader and frequent visitor of Thalia bookshop, I often experience choice problems in front of shelve with non-fiction books in English there. It seems, most prominent motivation and inspirational American authors market their creativity so well, that my buyer capabilities stand in direct proportion to sacred […]
Vergiss nicht, dass jemand, mit dem du auf diesem Planeten in Kontakt kommst, in ihr oder seiner eigenen Welt lebt. Wir alle nehmen an irrtümlich, dass andere Leute unsere Vision und unseren Gesichtspunkt teilen. Unsere Missverständnisse, Misstrauen, Erbitterungen und Misserfolg, befriedigende Beziehungen aufzubauen, werden häufig durch dieses Trugbild programmiert. Wenn […]
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) war ein deutscher Philosoph und ein der größten und freiesten Denker und Schriftsteller, die Deutschland hervorgebracht hat. Nietzsche hat zwei grundlegende Typen von Einstellungen beim Bewerten dargestellt und als Herrenmoral und Sklavenmoral bezeichnet. Herrenmoral und Sklavenmoral Die Herrenmoral entspringt einer Selbstbejahung der Starken. Sie verherrlichen ihre […]
Ещё раз об обществе потребителей, здоровом питании и дуальной природе человека Почему большинству людей хочется одного и того же – разбогатеть или обрести финансовую независимость? Желания людей схожи и сводятся к материальной обеспеченности – покупке дома, машины, красивой одежды, предметов быта, совершения путешествий, наличию хорошо оплачиваемой работы или возможности дать […]
It was election campaign event in Vienna Stadthalle, which attracted thousands of people who expressed their support for social democrats prime candidate Werner Faymann. I talked to a few ordinary persons who enjoyed themselves in buffet of concert hall during the speech of Werner Faymann looking at the screen of […]
Unbelievable, but it was so cold in Vienna, I never expected it may be so. I felt lonely and isolated, I knew almost nobody in the city, and was not sure, what every new day would bring me. Sometimes I wonder, what is the engine that always moves me forward? […]
Feeling lonely I would go to railway station and stay there thinking about different things. What is love? What is success and failure? They exist as patterns common for all, or everybody has his own definition? What is there for sure is movement. Moving along the road, sometimes carriage can […]