Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Social Relations On Dealing With Other People
Social Relations On Dealing With Other People
people
to deal with
them
More generally, when we find ourselves
irritated by someone's shortcomings, we Doing this will help us become more
keep in mind that there are doubtless should pause to reflect on our own empathetic to this individual's faults and
people who find us to be annoying. shortcomings. therefore become more tolerant of him
When we interact with an annoying person... Keep in mind that our annoyance at what he
does will almost invariably be more
detrimental to us than whatever it is he is In other words, by letting ourselves become
doing. annoyed, we only make things worse.
doing
saying
duty
controlling our thoughts about them.
sensual imaginings
jealousies
Keeping in mind that the world cannot exist People do not choose to have the faults There is a sense in which the people who
without such individuals they do. annoy us cannot help doing so.
But we can be
have been corrupted, for fear that their danger that we will soon discover similar
values will contaminate ours. desires in ourselves, and our tranquility will
thereby be disrupted.
selective about "Who are melancholy and bewail
befriend Avoid people who are simply whiny A companion who is always upset and
bemoans everything is a foe to tranquility.
And in particular, people who are doing a While enjoying the companionship of these
better job than we are of living in individuals, we should work hard to learn
accordance with these values. what we can from them.
Seek friends who share our values
Be selective
Avoid banquets given by nonphilosophers. Their values could contaminate ours.
about which
(Unless doing our social duty requires us to When we find ourselves in a group that is
we attend
It is therefore pointless to wish they could
be less annoying
In our dealings with others, we should But having said this, it should be added that
operate on the assumption that they are other people can be changed, and that we
fated to behave in a certain way. should work to change them.
Social fatalism
Even though it is possible to change others,
we can take some agony out of dealing with
them by telling ourselves that they are fated
to behave as they do.