Let’s put aside the fact that a lot of sociopaths end up in prisons or mental asylums because of the acts they commit. But we’ll write that off as the fact that some people aren’t good at seeing what their long-term self-interests are.
So let’s consider instead an intelligent sociopath who lacks empathy but doesn’t commit murder because he recognizes the consequences he’d face for doing so. If he commits crimes, he does it in a way that is undetected. Is he better off than a non-sociopath?
I’d say no. It’s true that he’s unburdened by guilt because of his lack of emotional connection with other people. But he’s also missing all of the positive effects normal people experience from those emotional connections.
A person who has no emotions might function at perfect efficiency. But emotions are the things which give us reasons to live.
I am wholly confident he was taught basic arithmetic operations. Mr. Howard’s problem is not that he wasn’t taught basic arithmetic. His problem is that he is insane.
I agree with you completely. My point is that sociopathy is the opposite of insanity in the same sense that something too simple is the opposite of something too complex; or how having too *little *of something is the opposite of having too *much *of it. They’re both wrong, but in different ways.
We’re all slightly insane in very healthy ways. “Sanity” isn’t one end of the scale - it’s the middle.
Let’s just put aside the arguments over whether Howard is a psychotic or a schizophrenic or a sociopath and focus on the fact that we can all agree he’s nuts.