“Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret…Wherever you find money, prestige and power you will find them.”
Robert Hare
“Respect for texts is replaced by trendy theory, the open-mindedness of philosophy is replaced by strident ideology, disciplined reflection is replaced by angry activism, the guidance of tradition is replaced by relentless liberation from oppression, the search for God and the Good is replaced by dogmatic relativism, scientific inquiry (and an appreciation of its limits in grasping the whole truth about who we are) is replaced by scientism (or else its opposite: scientific truth is replaced by blather about Western logocentrism), and human dignity is replaced by class-based struggle for self-esteem in the context of identity politics” Peter Augustine Lawler on “the way the humanities are often (although not always) taught in the contemporary American academy” in “Libertarians vs. Liberal Learning” (Modern Age, Winter 2014)
Jim, I know you follow the housing industry. Here’s a new report from the Federal Reserve that you may find interesting:
Housing Crash Continues to Overshadow Young Families’ Balance Sheets
http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/itb/articles/?id=2481
Hare is technically describing sociopaths rather than psychopaths, the latter being the serial killers, sadists, mass murderers, etc. As an example: Bill is a sociopath (the women); Hilarious is a psychopath (Vince, the Arkansas State Trooper, etc.) BC-LR to all
“Hare is technically describing sociopaths rather than psychopaths, the latter being the serial killers, sadists, mass murderers, etc.”
This is not true, and is a common misunderstanding that Hare and others have addressed repeatedly in the literature. Psychopaths are NOT serial killers and mass murders. There are high functioning psychopaths that can be identified in society that have nothing to do with murder.
Psychopathy is a physically based condition, where a person is not equipped to feel remorse and empathy. There are degrees of this. They are not necessarily evil. They are just not restrained by what we might call conscience.
A sociopath does understand remorse and does have a conscience, but they have silenced them voluntarily to suit their own ends and for other reasons.
Both are capable of murder. Both are capable of rational actions. There are other factors at play, and as I said, there are matters of ‘degree’ of the affliction.
You cannot define them by what they ‘do,’ one defines them by why they do it and how they might feel about it.