The Film Noir Experience

This morning I woke up thinking about what it means to be a good person. I know, what a weird thing to think about at 8 o'clock in the morning. But, I'm a weird girl. I was wondering, what exactly does it take to be a decent person? Is it kindness? Is it love? Is it respect or honor or empathy?

Which got me thinking, being a good person seems to be something that you do in context. In the context of being around other people. I suppose it does matter what you are like when you are on your own. You can be kind to yourself. You can love yourself. You can respect yourself and what is around you, even if those things are not other people. You can sympathize for other creatures. But, it seems to really matter in how you treat other people.

I have been listening to MIT's open courseware. Specifically, I have been listening to lectures given on psychology by a man named Jeremy Wolfe. I am only about four lectures in the series (or rather, the semester's worth of lectures) but Dr. Wolfe has pointed out that empathy is hardwired into the brain. We are empathic creatures, whether we know it or not, because as social creatures it is advantageous to for emotion to be catching. His example was wilderbeests. Now, if you are a wilderbeest and you see a cheetah, you get scared. And, if you can't see a cheetah, but you can see another scared wilderbeest, its in your best interest to get scared as well because if one of you is scared, then there is probably a threat. So, if its part of our biological programming to empathetic, is it still necessary to the definition of what a decent human being is?