Are Humans Inherently Selfish?

[Dr Ampersand]

To answer the topic title question, yes. Personally I don't care if a lion is hungry, he can go piss off and starve to death if the only alternative is eating and killing me.It's basically a matter of surviving. However we're also nice to those we can relate to. We can be nice for the sake of being nice as well as nice for our own sake.
e.g A crematorium worker wants you to help at the crematorium, you could help him for the sake of feeling good or for the sake of satisfying your curiosity of what a crematorium looks like but you could also go just to help. You might gain nothing from going there but still go there for the sake of helping. You might have hated your decision as your money could have gotten burned, you might be angry at yourself and very stressed out or you might have gotten nightmares from the dead people but your reason for going there would still have been for the sake of being nice.

If people were nice for the sake of being nice day in and day out, I'd not be surprised of a third of them were bitter and unhappy. It's not impossible to be nice for unselfish reasons it's just without reward and therefore in the eyes of some, pointless.

To answer the question of ,"Is everything we do, in one way or another, to benefit ourselves?" , no. Although it makes more sense to benefit yourself than not.

 

[Ameatypie]

To answer the topic title question, yes.

It's not impossible to be nice for unselfish reasons it's just without reward and therefore in the eyes of some, pointless.

To answer the question of ,"Is everything we do, in one way or another, to benefit ourselves?" , no. Although it makes more sense to benefit yourself than not.

But being nice would make you feel good, and if you did it primarily for that feeling, wouldn't that be (as well as a 'reward') selfish? you could say 'i am doing this for the sake of other people', but really it would be for yourself... even if its just to say or think that your a nice person.

 

[Axolotl]

2) A man is in a war trench, surrounded by his friends and comrades, and someone throws a grenade into the trench. He dives on it, it explodes, he sacrifices himself to save his comrades. Why? because he can't live without his friends perhaps. Or, because he could not live with himself if his friends died and he survived. Or, he feels a need to repay a past deed.... there are many reasons, but all of them, every single one.... selfish?

But selfishness is putting your own interests above all other concerns. Sacrificing yourself for others is inherently unselfish because you die which is very rarely a beneficial outcome.

 

[Extreme Tazer]

I don't get all of this 'humans are bad' stuff - why do lions hunt in packs?

Animals are the worst perpetrators of selfishness - at least our actions can be mistaken for good deeds.

 

[Ameatypie]

2) A man is in a war trench, surrounded by his friends and comrades, and someone throws a grenade into the trench. He dives on it, it explodes, he sacrifices himself to save his comrades. Why? because he can't live without his friends perhaps. Or, because he could not live with himself if his friends died and he survived. Or, he feels a need to repay a past deed.... there are many reasons, but all of them, every single one.... selfish?

But selfishness is putting your own interests above all other concerns. Sacrificing yourself for others is inherently unselfish because you die which is very rarely a beneficial outcome.

Perhaps you are atoning for past sins? or, as mentioned, you choose to sacrifice yourself because you could not stand to see your friends killed while you still lived.

 

[Axolotl]

2) A man is in a war trench, surrounded by his friends and comrades, and someone throws a grenade into the trench. He dives on it, it explodes, he sacrifices himself to save his comrades. Why? because he can't live without his friends perhaps. Or, because he could not live with himself if his friends died and he survived. Or, he feels a need to repay a past deed.... there are many reasons, but all of them, every single one.... selfish?

But selfishness is putting your own interests above all other concerns. Sacrificing yourself for others is inherently unselfish because you die which is very rarely a beneficial outcome.

Perhaps you are atoning for past sins? or, as mentioned, you choose to sacrifice yourself because you could not stand to see your friends killed while you still lived.

But both of those are altruistic motivations. A truely selfish being would not seek to atone or care about the lives of others more than their own.

 

[GrinningManiac]

Humans are selfish, it is in our genes to make sure we get enough of what we want/need regardless of others

A generous 'cave man' didn't last long in a famine, basically

Everything we do is out of self-interest. Friends are for security, both literally and psychologically, and when we're nice to them, it's to strengthen the bonds that will protect us against ill fate.

 

[Darth Caelum]

Short Answer Yes. All humans want to feel good for whatever reason. Whether to live, to have sex, to love a person, to eat, etc. We do it because we WANT to. Our Natural inclination is to do something because it most benefits us.

 

[Ameatypie]

A truely selfish being would not seek to atone or care about the lives of others more than their own.

O rly? I would say we are defined by our relationships with others, and no matter how selfish they might be we need them, cannot get by without them and therefore some would prefer to sacrifice their own lives rather than live without these relationships.

--

You have a point, though

 

[Kollega]

[HEADING=2]Oh my - not again.[/HEADING]

To answer - no. But it would make a lot more sense if they were. Somehow, there are in fact people helping others without any kind of reward... to brush that fact aside, you have to be a pretty hardcore nihilist always going "Grrrr your selfless compassion fills me with MURDER FRENZY!" Weirdly, people can act against their instincts - even if temporarily. It's what brain is for.

And everyone who will pick on me for having different opinion is a jerk.

 

[KiKiweaky]

I'm rather selfish and will admit to it, yes I doubt I'd do many favors for people if I knew I would never get anything in return.

Take work for example, you get a call at 6.30 in the morning on your day off. 'We're badly stuck in here. Jim's at home sick, can you come in?' Sure you'll get payed for the work but if you had a concrete guarantee that your boss wouldn't return the favor.

A day off for example, very important game of footy, Champions League final or something. Everybody wants it off, if you knew that your boss didn't care whether you came in on your day off or not, 10 people need to be in work. Maybe just maybe because you went the extra mile for for your boss and did them the favor of coming in when you didn't have to they may just give you the day off. While the person who had the nice sleep in, not answering the phone in the morning will have to work instead of you.

Saying that I'm selfish doesn't really mean I'm a horrible shite of a person, no you cant have my sweateez, all mine mwahaha. I let my friends eat stuff in my house as I know I'll get the same from the them, if I knew they'd never ever let me have anything in theirs. I doubt I'd be so generous.

One thing thats always said about me is that I'm always the one who has the parties or people over in their house. I don't really get it some of my friends parents never let people into the house, I always have people in mine as my parents don't mind as we rarely set fie to the place :/ That is something I do and generally don't get much in return, I haven't seen more than one room in some of my friends houses their parents are so odd. I bring people over to my house because I like having people over and my friends generally arent allowed to or dont want people in their house.

Apologies for epic rambling but I hope you can sort of see what I'm getting at.

 

[EeveeElectro]

My head hurts haha.
I guess when you look at it that way - yes. There's people who do things without expecting anything in return, like me. Point two confused me a little, it just sounds like a selfless act; when I hear stories like that my humanity meter rises a little.

 

[Commodore Hotpants]

Firstly - a big resounding YES!

The most basic human instinct is that of self preservation. The cavemen did it; and the only difference now is that we can smile and politely lie about it to someones face rather than bonk them on the head with a club and rape them.

In response to your first example - We lie to make other people feel better about themselves, because then in turn they'll (usually) return the favour and make you feel better about yourself. You might think that you truly want to make someone else happy and make them feel good; but at the end of the day, sooner or later you're going to expect a little bit of a return favour.

The difference is that whilst we cannot overcome this primal instinct, there are those that truly don't think of the return when they make others feel better. However, I believe that's naive to think otherwise as surely science and history teaches us that your theory is correct.

 

[Axolotl]

O rly? I would say we are defined by our relationships with others, and no matter how selfish they might be we need them, cannot get by without them and therefore some would prefer to sacrifice their own lives rather than live without these relationships.

I think the average person could survive bettter without firends than without a chest. But the key point of your post is how important others are to us and if other people are so important to us that we would willingly die for them, doesn't that indicate that we are inherently altruistic creatures?

 

[Ameatypie]

O rly? I would say we are defined by our relationships with others, and no matter how selfish they might be we need them, cannot get by without them and therefore some would prefer to sacrifice their own lives rather than live without these relationships.

I think the average person could survive bettter without firends than without a chest. But the key point of your post is how important others are to us and if other people are so important to us that we would willingly die for them, doesn't that indicate that we are inherently altruistic creatures?

oho, but now your twisting my words. I never said we would die for them - I said that we would rather die than live with the loss of such vital relationships for the rest of our lives. Other people are important to us because of what they can do FOR us through the relationships we have with them.

 

[TheIr0nMike]

No shit humans are selfish. I honestly can't see how people can miss it unless they are completely shut-in (even then, you should get an idea) or are just willingly ignoring it.

 

[Treefingers]

Perhaps your examples could come from selfishness... but i disagree with them both. I think you have twisted them unreasonably to become selfish.

I would say though that it's probably pretty instinctual to look out for yourself before others though. Diving on a grenade for example, is probably the exact opposite of what your instincts are telling you to do.

And i do question whether there is such a thing as true altruism, because of the warm fuzzy feeling you get from doing a good deed (as you noted).

 

[Kortney]

Yeah, I guess everything we do is selfish. Even "selfless" acts are done to make the person doing them feel better.

But I think that's thinking about things too much.

 

[TheZapper]

Yes. I don't think I've ever done something that wasn't for my own benefit in some way.

 

[Ameatypie]

No shit humans are selfish. I honestly can't see how people can miss it unless they are completely shut-in (even then, you should get an idea) or are just willingly ignoring it.

Its really not that obvious - im still sitting on the fence. If you had actually read through what other people have been saying in this thread you might have at least put a little more thought into your comment.