27/ In part 1 we saw how a civilizational project based on the aspiration to not cause unnecessary pain was possibly incoherent
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Replying to @vgr
28/ Let's assume majority of humans (not including you and me of course) derive pleasure from causing/witnessing pain as a condition of life
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29/ The question then is, why, whether it is a true problem, and what if anything to do about it?
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30/ If you treat desire to cause pain as a pathology and non-harm-causing, you will look for "deviant" conditions that cause this desire
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31/ Let's set aside functional value of pain (learning to endure some pain yourself is maybe good; so causing mutual pain for that is too)
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32/ Let's also set aside societal-functional value if any, such as pain caused for deterrence purposes. These don't need pleasure to justify
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33/ So we are talking causing/witnessing pain for pleasure, with moralizing and deterrence theories applied to justify/rationalize it
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34/ So why does this drive exist? There are four broad theories to consider: Disease/pathology, Darwinian, Jungian, and Buddhist.
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35/ Disease/pathology theory would treat desire to cause pain as a potentially fixable condition due to genetics/chemicals/lead for eg
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36/ Darwinian theory would take the other extreme, point to cats torturing mice, and say desire to cause pain is completely normal, adaptive
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37/ In between we have Jung, which would be some obscure thing about sadism being really about torturing your own shadow, a kind of growth
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Replying to @vgr
38/ And finally, the Buddhist version, which is kinda similar to Jung in spirit. You'd say desire is the root of all pain
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39/ My assessment: pathology theory is only true for tiny fraction of spectrum of pleasure-from-pain behaviors
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