We are all hypocrites, self-centered and do everything because out of self-interest.

[Thierro]

What do you guys think?

 

Is EVERY action we make out of self-interest? Are we all subconsciously hypocrites and self-centered? Is this our blueprint as a human being? Is this our survival instinct? Does altruism even exist?

 

I can’t think of a single scenario where no self-interest is involved.

[Yvelysse]

*Enters the Devil's Advocate*

 

"And your point is?" says he.

 

*Exits stage left*

 

Srsly we all are about number one.

 

Yet, there are many things I have done that are done because of service to my family or others that would not have ultimately been in my best interest.

 

I find when a female becomes a mom, she takes a back seat in many issues.

I'd think the same is for a man becoming a dad.

 

It's my thoughts on narcissism

[Sharpie]

Urgh, I dunno.

 

Even when I do something selfless, I get something out of it. But I don't think self-interest has to be selfishness. It can benefit others too. If I saw a lost child, I would help him or her out. I hate to see children suffer. Is that a selfish thing? Maybe, a little bit in that I don't want to be seen as a bad person. But I don't help a child thinking I'll get something out of it.

 

I have a headache thinking about this. Too much philosophicating for my brain.

[theBrokenMuse]

My thoughts: We are all self-centered because we are biologically programed with an intense survival instinct and that forces us to look out for number one until we have children. Then we will often put them before ourselves but this is due to our innate drive to see our genes survive into the future. Back when tribes first started forming, we benefited from sharing resources and such because not only did it increase our own chances of survival but those in the tribe were often all related in some way (the survival of genes desire rearing it's head here again).

 

We sometimes will risk life and limb for a stranger but that's often a result of something triggering a fight or flight response in a person who then acts in a very instinctual way. When we freely give to others, wanting nothing in return, it's usually because doing so makes us feel good. I am not certain that true altruism exists nor am I entirely sure that it even should.

[Nikki Sahagin]

I don't believe humans engage in a single act that is not selfish at its core. Even positive actions are only performed because they make a person feel good for doing them.

 

I suppose it is part of our make-up in order to enable us to survive most definitely.

 

This reminds me of the argument between Phoebe and Ross I believe on Friends, when they argued whether anybody was capable of a truly altruistic act. It's just not possible. There is always something selfish motivating that person, even an act of self-sacrifice is born out of the positive feeling you will experience at sparing someone else, that is, even selfless acts are born from a selfish seed.

[hART]

There is an internal reward for helping someone in need. Maybe it is love, maybe it is something else. Usually knowing, hey I was in that situation once and really needed someone to help me and they did/didn't, so I want to help someone. When my depression gets bad I don't feel better or worse helping someone, but I do it out of habit. Humanity and the world is a whole consciousness, when one negative thing happens to one person it affects everyone around them. Being conscious of others, would be selfish in a way, once you realize that the karma could come back to you (protecting the self by protecting others). In another way altruism serves the self by feeling morally above other people, it sounds silly, but it feeds the ego in a positive way, so the more altruistic one becomes until they become more altruistic than other people, then they become leaders (Dali Lama) and possibly get fame. However, I'm like most people, I help by not needing help.

[Seamless74]

ive always thought its actually pretty simple, and if you break it down I mean you know to like the cellular level the basic building blocks of life their sole purpose is to survive and replicate, so it kind of stands to reason that the whole organism that is built by the single cell amoebas or whatever would do likewise..

 

 

However by the grace of god it really does appear people sometimes do things for no rhyme or reason they simply do them to do them. Like pulling someone from a burning car, or saving someone who fell on the traintracks or holding a door open for someone..

 

The former might very well be the norm albeit a tad bit too reductionistic or schopenhaurian for my taste, the latter seen much less often by impossible to refuse that it does exist.

[skydiveaddict]

What do you guys think?

 

Is EVERY action we make out of self-interest? Are we all subconsciously hypocrites and self-centered? Is this our blueprint as a human being? Is this our survival instinct? Does altruism even exist?

 

I can’t think of a single scenario where no self-interest is involved.

 

I can,

Altruism exists. I have seen it first hand. I may even be guilty of it myself.

[Yer_Blues]

Well yeah, if you introduce the self-concept as something that people are being "self-interested" about by building, then altruism is impossible.

 

However, if you eliminate the "feel better about yourself" blanket "self-interest" claim, then it's quite possible. When I sacrifice things that belong to me (money etc.) for other people without any expectation of a return or a quid pro quo, then the only way you can say I am selfish is if I am fishing for emotional return.

 

However, that isn't the motivation, it is a deeper level of humanity that not everyone reaches. You feel pleasure and pain and should learn to seek one and avoid the other, and because of this experience, should want to help others do the same because we are all the same. When I see other people in deep mourning I am usually overcome with sadness. I've cried listening to other describe what they are experiencing. Empathy is not self-interested unless you are trying to be noticed or are looking for social gain.

 

Reducing all actions to self-interest is like reducing all actions to being results of different chemicals in the brain and genetics... there is a plausible explanation provided by this view, but it is is oversimplifies higher level cognitive existence in my opinion.

[TaraMaiden]

I cannot for the life of me consider that the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa do/did the things they do/did, because they were selfish....

 

As Yer_Blues states, there is a feel-good factor to putting others first, but it is only selfish if that is your primary or pivotal objective.

 

some time ago, a British actor conducted an experiment for a University in Cambridge.

He spent one day being a total jerk, crab-head and grouch, and basically, was unpleasant to everyone he met.

 

The following day, he did the complete reverse thing and at every possible opportunity, put others first and made efforts to be Kind.

 

The researchers not only garnered his own version of his emotional state, and the effect the two experiences had had on him, but they also fitted him with a myriad of hidden sensors and noted his unconscious and involuntary physical responses.

 

The results were astounding (yet unsurprising) at the same time.

 

We act, think, feel and are generally healthier when we do the good stuff.

 

When we act in a selfish, self-centred, egotistic and uncaring manner, Mind and body both suffer.

 

I'd rather be happy and healthy, than a miserable git and suffer for it in the long-term.

[jean-luc sisko]

What do you guys think?

 

Is EVERY action we make out of self-interest? Are we all subconsciously hypocrites and self-centered? Is this our blueprint as a human being? Is this our survival instinct? Does altruism even exist?

 

I can’t think of a single scenario where no self-interest is involved.

 

Self-interest is the basic/rudimentary human motivation.

[TaraMaiden]

Is that little gem as a result of your quest for knowledge...?

[Taramere]

I think people act out of self interest a good deal of the time, but that our instincts are also geared towards making us act in ways that perpetuate our own species - even if those actions don't do us much good as individuals. Some people are temperamentally disposed to be helpful and empathic. You can see it in them from an early age. A toddler who hands things to you, and cries when they see another child crying or tries to comfort them. Animals often do the same thing, having an instinct to provide soothing actions to other creatures in distress. I doubt they do it for sanctimonious reasons. It's just a natural instinct in action.

 

One thing that seems almost universal is the human need to regard oneself as useful. Some people do it to the point where they need to perceive the majority of other people as worthless parasites who are dependent on their great selves. The old "I should be allowed to stay in the boat, and you should be thrown out into the sea because..."

 

I regard that as a somewhat foolish perspective. If the people you are assisting, supporting, building houses for, providing natural resources to, saving the lives of etc etc are worthless and parasitical, then it stands to reason that you're not doing anything of true value in providing goods, services and resources to them. I find debates about altruism v egotism interesting, but I do think it's a bit pointless for anybody to aspire to being wholly altruistic or wholly egotistical...or to beat themselves up as "hypocrites" on discovering that they are comprised of a bit of both.

[jean-luc sisko]

Is that little gem as a result of your quest for knowledge...?

 

It's a fact of life and the human condition.

[threebyfate]

We are all hypocrites, self-centered and do everything because out of self-interest.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Is EVERY action we make out of self-interest? Are we all subconsciously hypocrites and self-centered? Is this our blueprint as a human being? Is this our survival instinct? Does altruism even exist?

 

I can’t think of a single scenario where no self-interest is involved.

I think you're setting up a fallacious argument where if it's not X, it's Y. Not necessarily the case.

 

As animals, people are driven firstly by biological imperative. This includes a strong element of self-interest since species survival includes being alive to reproduce or to protect your progeny.

 

How this correlates to the more negatively dramatic stance of hypocrites and being self-centered, that's some leap of logic.

 

But I do chuckle at the individuals who claim niceness. They're nice because it gets them something, whether it's external validation, goods, services or some form of internal validation of "I'm so nice".