Gambit
Well-Known Member
Do you believe people are generally more selfish or more altruistic?
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Selfishenss vs. Altruism
- Thread starter Gambit
- Start date
Jonathan Ainsley Bain
Logical Positivist
Its a really tough question, because how many people can any one individual have good enough knowledge of
to be sure as to what their intentions are?
I would say that most of the people I have met in my life, are essentially selfish,
but then if this were true universally, how would society still exist?
If most people were selfish, we would all be living in tiny little tribes squabbling over every morsel of food.
So perhaps, it is that the structures of this society that were put in place after ww2 were done so in a genuine
spirit of altruism, but that as we have forgotten those horrid lessons, so society is creeping backwards towards
more and more selfishness.
Let me give an example. 25 years ago, when working as a cashier, it would take me 20 hours work to pay
for my room which I rented. Today that same job would require 300 hours of work, which is not even possible
to survive in such a way. So the pay has doubled while rent is 30 times more.
That is quite scary when one compares it to the preconditions for ww2 and the french revolution.
Essentially society is devolving into a neo-feudal state. Perhaps people need to listen to the
likes of Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, and take them very very seriously.
to be sure as to what their intentions are?
I would say that most of the people I have met in my life, are essentially selfish,
but then if this were true universally, how would society still exist?
If most people were selfish, we would all be living in tiny little tribes squabbling over every morsel of food.
So perhaps, it is that the structures of this society that were put in place after ww2 were done so in a genuine
spirit of altruism, but that as we have forgotten those horrid lessons, so society is creeping backwards towards
more and more selfishness.
Let me give an example. 25 years ago, when working as a cashier, it would take me 20 hours work to pay
for my room which I rented. Today that same job would require 300 hours of work, which is not even possible
to survive in such a way. So the pay has doubled while rent is 30 times more.
That is quite scary when one compares it to the preconditions for ww2 and the french revolution.
Essentially society is devolving into a neo-feudal state. Perhaps people need to listen to the
likes of Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, and take them very very seriously.
Other: the attribution of behavior as "selfish" or "altruistic" is precisely that... an attribution. As such, any and all human behavior can be spun as one, the other, both, or neither. In short, I believe people are generally people.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
That's just a tautology.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Because it would be in your best interest to cooperate.
Jonathan Ainsley Bain
Logical Positivist
That had an ominous ring to it.
So what you are saying is that people want to be selfish,
but instead they behave altruistically for reasons either logical, or conditioned, or a direct threat?
Even those threatening us into being altruistic do so because, if they do not then others threaten them?
Gambit
Well-Known Member
I believe people seek what they believe is in their best interest.
Altruism is like free will.
It doesn't really exist, it's an illusion created by our inability to understand why we make the choices that we do.
We all choose what we believe, at the time of the choice, to be in our own best interests. Altruism is when we make profoundly sophisticated moral choices, recognising that we will live our best lives in a world where someone takes care of us. Since there is no God who will do that we must do it for each other.
Tom
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Do you believe you are more altruistic than selfish?
I don't know about that.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Do you believe any human being is capable of a truly altruistic act?
Your post reduces to being entirely about what people think about other people.
So? It describes what I believe. Is it so awful that I see that what a person does can be interpreted as either of these things? You can call it a "tautology," but I'm going to sit here and understand that it's the capacity to see things from multiple perspectives.
Do you think either altruism or selfishness is about what people think about other people?
I know you weren't addressing me, but it certainly seems that way to this one. The question makes for an excellent test about what a person thinks about human nature.
EtuMalku
Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
al·tru·is·tic: showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish
Disinterested, sure . . . selfless, no . . . unselfish, no
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Oh, really?
I think most people are basically motivated by self-interest. I'm not sure it is really possible to act otherwise.
I'm all for showing an adjective/adverb.