Nah were not selfish, we are just confused about ourselves and do everything out of fear and love.
Poll: Are Humans Always Selfish?
- Thread starter Quad08
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Uh, of course.
Any species interested in its' own continuation will be selfish.
It's impossible to strip humanity of its selfishness, because if you analyze any situation closely enough you will find some way to make it seem as though people were acting selfishly.
People are altruistic to get "their" message across; people do favours for strangers to make "themselves feel good".
Like Kraken said at the beginning: "..depends on what you consider to be selfish".
It's unfair to pose the question to todays society, I think, because of the negative connotations that selfishness has come to acquire.
Not all selfishness is a bad thing.
Any species interested in its' own continuation will be selfish.
It's impossible to strip humanity of its selfishness, because if you analyze any situation closely enough you will find some way to make it seem as though people were acting selfishly.
People are altruistic to get "their" message across; people do favours for strangers to make "themselves feel good".
Like Kraken said at the beginning: "..depends on what you consider to be selfish".
It's unfair to pose the question to todays society, I think, because of the negative connotations that selfishness has come to acquire.
Not all selfishness is a bad thing.
If you can consider making somebody else happy because it makes me smile even when I'm upset, then I guess I'm pretty selfish.
I say yes.
I help that old lady across the street, so I can have the joy of being thanked or the joy of myself telling myself that I did something good.
I donate to a charity to be thanked, or to self thank.
That pretty much sums it up I guess, we are always selfish.
I help that old lady across the street, so I can have the joy of being thanked or the joy of myself telling myself that I did something good.
I donate to a charity to be thanked, or to self thank.
That pretty much sums it up I guess, we are always selfish.
Not at all. While I do believe the world will end soon, it will be of causes unrelated to the Revolution. In fact, I feel it would have the reversing effect, as one of Communism's imperative principles is preservation and care of nature.Monkeyman8 said:-snip-
last thing from me, would the revolution cause the end of the world? causes then being unselfish and all we'd have to not go through with it
Humans are selfish and self serving by nature HOWEVER we can wean a lot of that selfishness away to become, though not entirely, selfless.
If we where not, at least a little, selfless we would perish. I mean we wouldn't get any food at the supermarket cause someone else may need that grocery, we wont even plant a seed to grow our own food cause someone else could need it more and so on and so forth.
So we are inherently selfish out of self preservation, however; we should aim to be selfless as to be completely selfish is also counter productive for the opposing reasons outlined above
If we where not, at least a little, selfless we would perish. I mean we wouldn't get any food at the supermarket cause someone else may need that grocery, we wont even plant a seed to grow our own food cause someone else could need it more and so on and so forth.
So we are inherently selfish out of self preservation, however; we should aim to be selfless as to be completely selfish is also counter productive for the opposing reasons outlined above
I'd say everything we do is (ultimately) based on what we think will acheive happiness or avoiding suffering (utalitarian view) for ourselves. If you say, help an old lady across the road, you're either doing it because helping others makes YOU feel good (or gives you a beneficial social reputation), or not helping others makes you feel ashamed (or a social outcast) and thus to avoid YOU suffering.
Thus even those (rare few) who do good actions for no material or social gain are selfish, for they do it to please themselves, or avoid the (morally) suffering they would feel not helping others out. That doesn't make their deeds any less morally right, admirable or good, but it goes to show that humans will always persue their own goals for THEIR happiness - and fortunately, some of those goals might be to help others out.
As for historical examples of soldiers throwing themselves on live grenades to save squadmates, I'd reacon they have either done it because they were either mentally scarred or suicidal and saw a way out, did it for the "glory" or family benefits, or because the army had utterly succeded in robbing them of their individuality, making "the squad" or "the objective" the factor towards which happiness/suffering is weighed in their minds (rather like fascism and communism, in which the individual counts for nothing). Thus, I'd say it takes brainwashing to a susceptable individual to "overcome" (in reality twist it towards another object) selfishness, and in doing so one comes dangerously close to the nourishment of the worst regimes ever seen on the planet.
Thus I would argue that any human of sound mind is selfish
Thus even those (rare few) who do good actions for no material or social gain are selfish, for they do it to please themselves, or avoid the (morally) suffering they would feel not helping others out. That doesn't make their deeds any less morally right, admirable or good, but it goes to show that humans will always persue their own goals for THEIR happiness - and fortunately, some of those goals might be to help others out.
A great example of humans acting good to avoid their own suffering, and the conclusion I too would make from it admirably summed up.internetzealot1 said:
As for historical examples of soldiers throwing themselves on live grenades to save squadmates, I'd reacon they have either done it because they were either mentally scarred or suicidal and saw a way out, did it for the "glory" or family benefits, or because the army had utterly succeded in robbing them of their individuality, making "the squad" or "the objective" the factor towards which happiness/suffering is weighed in their minds (rather like fascism and communism, in which the individual counts for nothing). Thus, I'd say it takes brainwashing to a susceptable individual to "overcome" (in reality twist it towards another object) selfishness, and in doing so one comes dangerously close to the nourishment of the worst regimes ever seen on the planet.
Thus I would argue that any human of sound mind is selfish
Aaaand if you have bothered to read "capital" and the communist manifest, you'd know communism is never supposed to happen because it is an impossible state. There have been attempts to reach communism, but the result is always the same: shitstorm. Lenin tried and how well did that turn out? Magnificently? No wait, it was the greatest fuckup in history. Just because people are selfish and greedy. Socialism is the tool to work towards the utopia of communism. Now go see what "utopia" means, precisely.Akai Shizuku said:
Socialism, and communism, are based on the belief that people are good, kind, caring, slefless and sharing. Anyone with even a bit of sense can see that the human race is nothing but a bunch of hairless apes with too many guns and too much time. We are selfish, greedy, mean and just generally bad. How many humanitarian catastrophes do we have to see in the form of a ruined economy caused by marxist socialism before we understand that? The worldwide attempt to reach communism has the highest death toll of any ideology, religion or even a war. Because communism looks at a human not as an individual, but as a part of the community, we have to look at the community, which is a group of humans, when it comes to being selfish. So single cases of selflessness are not viable arguments here. Humans, as a whole, are crap.
I'm not going offtopic here, just proving a point: communism or marxist socialism require humans to be selfless, kind and sharing. An empirical observation: marxist socialism and "communism" always go horribly wrong. Could we perhaps draw a conclusion out of that?
Yes. Every single person on the planet is acting purely on egoistic impulses.Quad08 said:I'm currently taking a philosophy class and we were talking about Psychological Egoism "...the view that all people are selfish in everything they do, that is, that the only motive anyone ever acts is self-interest. On this view, even when we are acting in ways apparently to benefit others, they are actually motivated by the belief that acting in this way is to their own advantage..." (James Rachels)
Are we, humans, really motivated by selfish reasons?
Personally, I don't think the answer is so simple, but I'd like to see what you think and why
This is my opinion:
Whenever a person performs an action that seems utterly selfless, it is still done for egoistic reasons. The persons might not even have consciously thought it, but it's like this; whenever any person engage in a social construct, he has to be "selfless". This is because he has to act according to how he wishes to be treated by others; a truly selfish and egoistic person would not benefit from others' selfless actions, as they would not be directed towards him. The selfless acts have become an instinctual unconscious thing, that we perform in order to receive selfless acts from others. Now, I say selfless, but as you can see, it is born out of an egoistic thought; a person is only selfless, so that he may benefit from others selflessness. Thus, a selfless action becomes an instrument of benefit for one self, and it's no longer selfless.
Again, this is just my oppinion.
I think it can be applied to just about anything, especially if we are all very honest when discussing.
Some people are overly selfish, while others are Altruistic. There is a fine group of people between them.
It is scientifically proven that true altruism exists, I think I read about it in some New Scientist article. If I remember correctly they conducted a scientific experiment whereby two contestants would try and guess a number for a cash prize. The contentants were anonymous, that is they didn't see each other or have any contact with each other. Basically they were then given an option to share a percentage from 0 - 100% of the prize with the other player, and surprisingly a considerable proportion of people did share at least some of it, even though they didn't have any reason to and there would be no consequences for not doing so.
From an evolutionary perspective, I think the reason that altruism exists is because although it isn't in the best interests of individual members of a species, it is in the best interests of the species as a whole, and since we are talking about a general competition between species here. The species which have some form of altruism would outperform the ones which have none.
I would say that human beings are uniquely capable of ignoring their altruistic impulses, we have a much more pronounced capacity to be selfish, given that we actually have a sense of self.
From an evolutionary perspective, I think the reason that altruism exists is because although it isn't in the best interests of individual members of a species, it is in the best interests of the species as a whole, and since we are talking about a general competition between species here. The species which have some form of altruism would outperform the ones which have none.
I would say that human beings are uniquely capable of ignoring their altruistic impulses, we have a much more pronounced capacity to be selfish, given that we actually have a sense of self.
I challenge that. I bet that all three actions carried some benefit for you.thefreeman0001 said:
You were compelled to an act of honesty, so that others might act the same way to you. Also, the act has made you known, or reinforced the knowledge, among your pals as an honest person.thefreeman0001 said:
First, you hoped you could sleep with her at some pointthefreeman0001 said:
Maybe not that night, but your actions towards her has made you a closer, better friend, something that you might benefit from in turn when you are the being very drunk and haven gotten yourself seperated from your friends. That sucks. But notice how you are upset that they left you, and that noone gave you thanks. Hardly a selfless thought. The moment you expect anything from your selfless actions, they are not selfless anymore.thefreeman0001 said:
Of course we are. Selfishness is the natural progression of the now irrelevant self-preservation. Every person is constantly 'more important than that guy'.
That's what Louis taught me, anyway. Guess what? Pills aren't here anymore.
That's what Louis taught me, anyway. Guess what? Pills aren't here anymore.
The brain being what it is, a chemical phenomenon, and there being so many different people, human nature cannot possibly be that simple. I would say, though, that most people tend to look after themselves and their families and friends more than others, and I think that's perfectly appropriate behavior. The real question is whether people are too selfish, and I think that in the vast majority of cases they are not.
I have a fairly negative view on the human race but I can admit we aren't all bad. There do exist redeeming qualities to us as a species but overall we are destroying entire ecosystems for the sake of grazing land for cattle, we are mass hunting animals like sharks and crocodiles for endangering our lives while we invade their territory, we are hunting for the sheer thrill of it and have wiped out so many species doing so.... yeah I have to admit the world was in a better condition before we came along.
Also we may work to preserve endangered species but so often we only care about the cute cuddly ones that serve little to no purpose over the ugly ones that are vital to the ecosystem and we only care about the cute ones because we find them cute... so yeah, selfish is the right word to describe us.
Also we may work to preserve endangered species but so often we only care about the cute cuddly ones that serve little to no purpose over the ugly ones that are vital to the ecosystem and we only care about the cute ones because we find them cute... so yeah, selfish is the right word to describe us.