Dante's Purgatory has a number of discourses on the seven deadly sins that clarify a few things.
It's emphasized that the objects of the seven deadly sins aren't necessarily bad--quite the contrary. Self-love is a good thing, but taken to excess becomes pride. Friendly competition can inspire and drive you to do better, but that's also the road to envy. There's nothing inherently wrong with food, lovin', or material goods, until you overindulge and let them warp your life.
So he [Virgil] began: "Never, my son, was yet
Creator, no, nor creature, without love
Natural or rational--and thous knowest it.The natural cannot make an erring move;
The other may, either by faulty aim
Or else by too much zeal or lack thereof.When to the great prime goods it makes full claim,
Or to the lesser goods in measure due,
No sin can come of its delight in them;
Purgatory, Canto XVII, lines 91-99
I'm curious: to what extent do the "seven deadly sins" cover the most common reasons why people engage in self-defeating behavior? Are there any major omissions in the list of "seven deadly sins"? If you were to make a list of "X deadly sins", which sins would you include?
They settled on seven deadly sins to parallel the seven virtues. I think that self-hatred and some other issues relating to depression aren't properly represented, probably on account of depression being poorly understood. A lot of that stuff is put under the umbrella of sloth. It's probably worth adding some distinctions along these lines.
They settled on seven deadly sins to parallel the seven virtues.
I believe it was the other way around, the seven virtues were created to parallel the seven deadly sins. In any case seven was a number with religious significance, e.g., seven days of the week.
So I was reading the list of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins and I was impressed with the list (seeing how many of these sins are what ultimately bring down many major historical figures). I also recognize how many of these sins were responsible for some of my major setbacks in life, and am thinking of creative ways to reduce their effects (by putting value on things that don't involve any of those sins).
I'm curious: to what extent do the "seven deadly sins" cover the most common reasons why people engage in self-defeating behavior? Are there any major omissions in the list of "seven deadly sins"? If you were to make a list of "X deadly sins", which sins would you include?
As examples: should excessive guilt be counted as a sin? Should stupidity be counted as a sin? What about being excessively "autistic"?
Which of the "Seven deadly sins" do you think are most applicable to LessWrong posters? To what extent are they responsible for akrasia?