Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Overall, I agree that getting into the habit of listening to guilt rather than ignoring it tends to make you a better person, on average.

there is no point in feeling guilty about a conscious decision made in line with ones values

My understanding is that guilt is a product of evolution: it was a genetic advantage to our ancestors to have a distinct emotion of "fear of being caught doing something your tribe wouldn't approve of". Trying to wish away guilt may be like trying to wish away hunger: maybe possible to some extent, but unless you're self-delusional, you won't be able to entirely eradicate irrational forms of guilt.

That also points to a limitation of guilt as a motivator towards altruism: generally "no possibility of being shamed" == "no guilt". At most I feel pity for the suffering of animals in the wild, but I feel nothing that could be described as "guilt".

Expand full comment
Ronfar's avatar

You know, Anonymous, I never thought it about it that way... I'm wallowing in self-pity like a character in a Stephen R. Donaldson novel! I think I feel better now. Thanks!

Looking back, I've done some things that are probably worse, but for some reason I never felt particularly guilty about them. (All the other students seemed to agree that that teacher deserved it! ^_^) I think this event bothered me more I had made "playing Magic honestly" something that was important to me and categorized cheating as something really wrong, something that bad people did and I didn't.

(My usual problem with saying "I will do X" is that I often start surfing the Internet or something and get "stuck", leading me to neglect to do what it was that I said I was going to do, regardless of the strength of my original declaration of intent. I've done it so often that it makes me hesitate to make firm commitments. Maybe I need to go to Internet rehab or something...)

Expand full comment
28 more comments...

No posts