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I think my dad is a completely unselfish person. It depends how you look at it, though. I mean, to some people it can be extremely fulfilling to help people without getting anything in return. True goodness implies reward in itself. So you could argue that even those selfless acts are selfish to a certain degree. I guess you are aware of that conception, otherwise I can't understand how you come to the conclusion that nobody is able to perform a non egocentric deed. I have performed those kind of deeds on several occasions. So if you truly never met a person like that in your entire life, "hello".
I’ve never met an unselfish man during my entire life, nor have I ever heard of one. Can one completely disregard himself and do something to please somebody else? I think that maybe one must be completely apathetic to be able to perform a non egocentric deed. This discussion may, philosophically, be on a quite high level so I will disregard any poster I feel doesn’t understand my thoughts.
Quote from: 7even on January 24, 2008, 05:11:29 PMI think my dad is a completely unselfish person. It depends how you look at it, though. I mean, to some people it can be extremely fulfilling to help people without getting anything in return. True goodness implies reward in itself. So you could argue that even those selfless acts are selfish to a certain degree. I guess you are aware of that conception, otherwise I can't understand how you come to the conclusion that nobody is able to perform a non egocentric deed. I have performed those kind of deeds on several occasions. So if you truly never met a person like that in your entire life, "hello".if your dad would have to choose between saving your life or the life of a unknown guy, what would he do? i'll take it a step further, if your dad would have to choose betwee saving the life of his mother, lets say she's 60 years old, or saving the life or saving the life of a 15 years old girl in china, what would he do? and im just dipping my finger in the water here as you probably already know...
Quote from: Maestro Minded / LME on January 24, 2008, 05:18:15 PMQuote from: 7even on January 24, 2008, 05:11:29 PMI think my dad is a completely unselfish person. It depends how you look at it, though. I mean, to some people it can be extremely fulfilling to help people without getting anything in return. True goodness implies reward in itself. So you could argue that even those selfless acts are selfish to a certain degree. I guess you are aware of that conception, otherwise I can't understand how you come to the conclusion that nobody is able to perform a non egocentric deed. I have performed those kind of deeds on several occasions. So if you truly never met a person like that in your entire life, "hello".if your dad would have to choose between saving your life or the life of a unknown guy, what would he do? i'll take it a step further, if your dad would have to choose betwee saving the life of his mother, lets say she's 60 years old, or saving the life or saving the life of a 15 years old girl in china, what would he do? and im just dipping my finger in the water here as you probably already know...Umm... sorry, but it is pretty normal to choose the life of a kin over the life of some random chink. Doesn't make anybody egocentric.
Being the Objectivist that I am, I regard selfishness as a virtue. Selfishness is simply the "concern with one's own interests". It would be a negation of the facts of life to place anyone else's interests above your own. Therefore, I strongly believe in ethical hedonism as being the way to act socially, as opposed to 'genuine altruism'. If there's nothing in it for you to gain, you have no reason to act. Gaining is a vague term though; just someone showing you their respect, or even the feeling of a moral virtue can be enough to make a seemingly unselfish deed an act of ethical hedonism.I believe it all starts with your view on mankind. If you have a certain vision of what man should be like, and what should be considered virtues and what they should be praised for, you will be able to judge them for what they're worth. 'Unselfish' behavior then becomes an pledge for your own moral purity. How unselfish is that, really? It's perfectly selfish.
Besides, in response to the thread title... It is impossible for someone to be totally unselfish. I stated it as a negation of the facts of life, and a small example should do.If you regard someone else's interests as more important than your own, you're basically submitting yourself. It means you've totally devaluated your own life. That means you'll have to give your last crust of bread to someone else, because that would be unselfish. You die, someone else who is less unselfish lives. Huh?Such is the nature of unselfishness, and altruism on a whole. Now tell me, is unselfishness really as virtuous as it seemed?
No such thing. Being selfish is part of being human.
Quote from: 7even on January 24, 2008, 05:56:00 PMQuote from: Maestro Minded / LME on January 24, 2008, 05:18:15 PMQuote from: 7even on January 24, 2008, 05:11:29 PMI think my dad is a completely unselfish person. It depends how you look at it, though. I mean, to some people it can be extremely fulfilling to help people without getting anything in return. True goodness implies reward in itself. So you could argue that even those selfless acts are selfish to a certain degree. I guess you are aware of that conception, otherwise I can't understand how you come to the conclusion that nobody is able to perform a non egocentric deed. I have performed those kind of deeds on several occasions. So if you truly never met a person like that in your entire life, "hello".if your dad would have to choose between saving your life or the life of a unknown guy, what would he do? i'll take it a step further, if your dad would have to choose betwee saving the life of his mother, lets say she's 60 years old, or saving the life or saving the life of a 15 years old girl in china, what would he do? and im just dipping my finger in the water here as you probably already know...Umm... sorry, but it is pretty normal to choose the life of a kin over the life of some random chink. Doesn't make anybody egocentric.uhm yea it does because you value the life of somebody in your family, that has lived for lets say 60 years, higher than the life of somebody that has his/her entire life ahead. how can that not be selfish?notice though that i'm not saying that it's un-normal to think like that.
^Is exploitation a virtue to you?