I'm all for it. I simply don't see this as an either/or choice. We need people to pursue self improvement and for society to support everyone in being better. There's a virtuous self-reinforcing cycle there, and it needs to begin somewhere.
I'm all for it. I simply don't see this as an either/or choice. We need people to pursue self improvement and for society to support everyone in being better. There's a virtuous self-reinforcing cycle there, and it needs to begin somewhere.
No, not an either/or choice, but it's worth keeping both in mind.
As a side note, I suspect that, if you look at what works for individuals you will find that the largest gains come from practices that are, on some level, inherently difficult (You talked about the stoics, I also find myself thinking about this conversation about Buddhism -- https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/23/16179044/buddhism-meditation-mindfulness-robert-wright-interview ), in part because it takes a certain personality to embrace and find value in difficult practice.
Part of the challenge of trying to approach the collective action problem is figuring out what gives you a good result while excluding the fewest number of people; having a sufficiently low threshold of entry that it can be widely shared.
I'm all for it. I simply don't see this as an either/or choice. We need people to pursue self improvement and for society to support everyone in being better. There's a virtuous self-reinforcing cycle there, and it needs to begin somewhere.
No, not an either/or choice, but it's worth keeping both in mind.
As a side note, I suspect that, if you look at what works for individuals you will find that the largest gains come from practices that are, on some level, inherently difficult (You talked about the stoics, I also find myself thinking about this conversation about Buddhism -- https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/23/16179044/buddhism-meditation-mindfulness-robert-wright-interview ), in part because it takes a certain personality to embrace and find value in difficult practice.
Part of the challenge of trying to approach the collective action problem is figuring out what gives you a good result while excluding the fewest number of people; having a sufficiently low threshold of entry that it can be widely shared.