Philosophy Now Forum

We're always in competition. And it's legitimate to do the best we can for ourselves according to our individual standards. Cheating is where you avoid the normal route to gain something at the expense of other people (can't see where you can cheat animals and plants).

Would you regard cheating as a normal form of competition? (I think it is and I don't see how you can cheat yourself unless you get caught at it).

PhilX

If a lion conceal to get the prey, animals cheat everytime! A lion does not show his teeth to the prey 300 meters in front of it, since this last one generally goes faster.

But animals don't have law, except the one of the "stronger", so in a way, as you write, they don't cheat.

The only official way of cheating for human is going out of the law, and then, yes, cheat is allowed as far as you are not caught. But you could have more officious cheating. Some say people play a drama character, it may be a form of protection, but it also may be a way of cheat.

Having my pseudo, I cheat everyday if I pretend to be so great as the physicist, but even a name is not an identifier, so this form of protection is not really a cheat.

Depending on my point of view, cheat concerns overall the law, so I disapprove it; but I also disprove the idea to play a character. Because sincerity being your truth, it is the faster way to walk on yours.

Cheating in various forms and degrees is certainly part of life, from the way viruses reproduce to the colouration of tree toads; from the way foxes hunt to the election of presidents.

When cheating becomes a crime is when a group that needs to co-operate makes a pact to outlaw underhanded practices among its members. If a member then breaks that covenant, he's set himself against the interest of the group. Depending on how harmful the transgression is perceived to be, the group may reprove, correct, fine, punish, sanction, exile or kill the offender. If offenders are let off too lightly on enough instances of cheating, it becomes a serious threat to the survival of the group, both by dislocating the common resources and by breaking the trust among members. When cheating becomes fatal to the group is when it spreads from isolated incidents to a way of life.

Philosophy Explorer wrote: Would you regard cheating as a normal form of competition? (I think it is and I don't see how you can cheat yourself unless you get caught at it).

PhilX

Are you asking if it's a standard element of human nature or are you asking if it should be regarded as a legitimate practice?

Harbal wrote:

Philosophy Explorer wrote: Would you regard cheating as a normal form of competition? (I think it is and I don't see how you can cheat yourself unless you get caught at it).

PhilX

Are you asking if it's a standard element of human nature or are you asking if it should be regarded as a legitimate practice?

The first one Harbal.

PhilX

Philosophy Explorer wrote: The first one Harbal.

PhilX

Then I would say yes, cheating is a normal form of competition but there's a huge difference between the extremes of the scale. So much so, I would say, that they can't really be regarded as the same thing.