Agreeableness is a focus of Buddhism and Cognitive Enhancement - Chemical Happiness, Generosity, and Loving-Kindness. In the second part of the essay, J.Hughes of "Ethical Technology" uses psychological terms associated with conflict-avoidance and associates them with compassion.
Anyway, the article focuses on Buddhist thought practice and meditation. It associates compassion (of which Dalai Lama spoke) with agreeableness. I have been concerned about my disagreements with environmentalists, with environmental regulators, and other do-gooders. I'm conscious that my taking Socratic method over agreeableness has cost me chits and has been a difficult path. Jim Puckett has actually taken my defense in some groups, saying that he respects the role of the "crusader" who is trying to right an injustice, and that he identifies with some of my confrontational positions.
What I do not buy in this article is the association between agreement and empathy. It ignores the complex society which de Tocqueville and others warned us about, a "tyranny of the majority", or unjust concensus. In the case of recycling exports, I've tried to show that it's a "false majority" which agrees to boycott trade between haves and have nots.
This worried me. So many things in the article trace true to my roots. I was a philosopher first and a recycler second; I chose recycling because I wanted a karma or work-ethic yoga which would produce less consumption. Most work and effort (making cars, for example) tends to increase consumption, especially if your goal is to provide material goods to "have nots". I spent a long time looking at global population growth, came to some disturbing conclusions, and chose recycling because I didn't think I had the talent for solar energy... conserving energy became my path to creating energy.The factor of agreeableness appears to be particularly relevant to the virtues of generosity and compassion. People who score high on agreeableness are more compassionate, trusting and helpful throughout their lives while people low in agreeableness will find it hard not to be uncooperative, unsympathetic and easily irritated regardless of how much they meditate and think loving thoughts. Agreeableness has been found to be correlated with empathy (del Barrio et al., 2004) and volunteering (Carlo et al., 2005).Agreeableness is also related to several other personality constructs that have moral valence. Michael Ashton and colleagues (2005) have found that agreeableness is related to Honesty-Humility and Greed-Avoidance scales, which include personality descriptors such as sincere, fair, and unassuming as opposed to sly, greedy, and pretentious. Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility are in turn negatively associated with the ‘‘Dark Triad’’ traits of Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Primary Psychopathy (Lee & Ashton, 2005).
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| A disagreeable lawyer in South Africa |
What I do not buy in this article is the association between agreement and empathy. It ignores the complex society which de Tocqueville and others warned us about, a "tyranny of the majority", or unjust concensus. In the case of recycling exports, I've tried to show that it's a "false majority" which agrees to boycott trade between haves and have nots.
