What does "the same" mean here?

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Does "the same" refer to "the same driving force"?

Context:

Sexual lust is the driving force behind a large proportion of
human ambition and struggle, and much of it constitutes a mis-
firing. There is no reason why the same should not be true of the
lust to be generous and compassionate, if this is the misfired
consequence of ancestral village life. The best way for natural
selection to build in both kinds of lust in ancestral times was to
install rules of thumb in the brain. Those rules still influence us
today, even where circumstances make them inappropriate to their
original functions.

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Type: Question • Score: 5 • Views: 540 • Replies: 16

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View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

No Ori, I think it refers to "misfiring"

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@oristarA,

You already asked this, and had an answer, I think.

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Some scientists can not write good English. This is an example.

I think I agree with Dale, "the same" seems to refer to both the motivation and the failure/disappointment..

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

You already asked this, and had an answer, I think.

Subject: What does "the same" refer to? Failed to catch the nuance

http://able2know.org/topic/245115-1

My answer, which you marked "selected answer", and which I still stand by:

Quote:

"The same" applies to the whole previous sentence.

There is no reason why the same thing should not be true of the lust to be generous and compassionate (i.e. that it is the driving force behind a large proportion of human ambition and struggle, and much of it constitutes a mis-firing.)

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

contrex wrote:
You already asked this, and had an answer, I think.

Subject: What does "the same" refer to? Failed to catch the nuance

http://able2know.org/topic/245115-1

My answer, which you marked "selected answer", and which I still stand by:

Quote:
"The same" applies to the whole previous sentence.

There is no reason why the same thing should not be true of the lust to be generous and compassionate (i.e. that it is the driving force behind a large proportion of human ambition and struggle, and much of it constitutes a mis-firing.)

Thanks for searching out that answer.
For the convenience of discussion, let's still use the word lust here.
Lust One: Sexual Lust;
Lust Two: Lust of Being generous and compassionate?

Lust One is the driving force behind a large proportion of human ambition and struggle, less doubt here, for Freud invented a word named libido to describe it.

Lust Two is suspicious for most of people, I believe. For sexual desire comes from the desire to reproduce offsprings. It is the most fundamental desire of all living organisms. But Lust Two?

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Lust Two is suspicious for most of people, I believe. For sexual desire comes from the desire to reproduce offsprings. It is the most fundamental desire of all living organisms. But Lust Two?

Lust can mean "strong desire or enthusiasm". One may have a lust for another person in a sexual sense, or a lust for money, power, influence, popularity, fame, etc.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
Lust Two is suspicious for most of people, I believe. For sexual desire comes from the desire to reproduce offsprings. It is the most fundamental desire of all living organisms. But Lust Two?

Lust can mean "strong desire or enthusiasm". One may have a lust for another person in a sexual sense, or a lust for money, power, influence, popularity, fame, etc.

Thanks.
Please confirm grammatically:
Lust Two refers to the Lust of Being generous and compassionate?

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Lust Two refers to the Lust of Being generous and compassionate?

From the original quoted text:

Quote:

the lust to be generous and compassionate

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
Lust Two refers to the Lust of Being generous and compassionate?

From the original quoted text:

Quote:
the lust to be generous and compassionate

The question is that I failed to catch the nuance of "to be" structure. Is it equivalent to "being"?

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'To be' is a verb. We can desire to do things or be something; we can use a verb to express this.

I want or I have a desire:

to run, to swim, to eat, to drink, to travel, to rest, to read, to be happy, to grow tall, to see clearly, to live in Russia.

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@contrex,

Well. Would you mind rewriting "the lust to be generous and compassionate" so that I may understand it?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Well. Would you mind rewriting "the lust to be generous and compassionate" so that I may understand it?

The desire to be generous and to be compassionate.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
Well. Would you mind rewriting "the lust to be generous and compassionate" so that I may understand it?

The desire to be generous and to be compassionate.

Thanks.
But better not use "to be", for which I have encountered the obstacle of understanding.

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

But better not use "to be", for which I have encountered the obstacle of understanding.

To be is an extremely common verb; if you insist on avoiding it your standard of English will always be poor. What is difficult about these?

My doctor told me my weight is bad for my health so now I desire to be thin.

When I saw the lost child I wished to be helpful.

The lonely student wished to be popular.

I read books because I wish to be knowledgeable.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
But better not use "to be", for which I have encountered the obstacle of understanding.

To be is an extremely common verb; if you insist on avoiding it your standard of English will always be poor. What is difficult about these?

My doctor told me my weight is bad for my health so now I desire to be thin.

When I saw the lost child I wished to be helpful.

The lonely student wished to be popular.

I read books because I wish to be knowledgeable.

Got improved by these examples.
Is "to be" more dynamic and powerful than "being"?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Is "to be" more dynamic and powerful than "being"?

To be is the infinitive or base form of the verb. Being is the gerund form. Students often have a difficult time knowing when to use one or the other of these. In many situations, although there is a slight difference in meaning, gerunds and infinitives are used interchangeably. However there are some situations where they are not. You can say "being compassionate is desirable" or "to be compassionate is desirable", but you must say "I desire/hope/wish to be compassionate" because those verbs (and some others) must be followed by the infinitve of a verb, not a gerund. Likewise the nouns formed from those verbs, e.g. the desire, the hope, the wish.

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What does "the same" mean here?

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