Hey guys, I'm back! After reading around, it looks to me like the other topics are a little too hot right now, so I'm making my own. What do ya guys think? Are all humans, by instinct, selfish?
yes that is why there is wars,hatred..........if we werent selfish there wouldnt be wars because we wouldnt care about someone elses relgion,sexuality or wealth
seems like a good place to conclude this discussion...problem is solved right? I wouldn't be surprised, though, if this continued for another 100 pages
Actually, every single human has a part in their brain that is trying to bend anything to benefit you, even if it means being selfish.
Firetail speaks the truth. Every deed a person does, no matter how righteous, benefits them somehow. So, you go and help the homeless every weekend. Why? It makes you feel good knowing that you helped people.
Saying that we're selfish and greedy for feeding ourselves and SURVIVING is going too far though.
as long as ur selfish in a good way like that one example zootsuit gave than thats a good thing. but if ur selfish in a way that u get something u want and some one else gets hurt then thats a bad thing.
Saying that we're selfish and greedy for feeding ourselves and SURVIVING is going too far though.
Hmmm... I was thinking about this the other day as to what constitutes selfishness, and what is the ultimate act of selfishness. I approached it this way: First, I asked "What is the basic nature of selfishness?" I came to the conclusion that to be an act of the self and not some convoluted "otherishness" it must be an action which only affirms that of the self and its goals at the possible expense of the other. All forms of competition hence are selfish because one must choose to pursue their goal of winning while another loses. Second, I asked "What actions do humans take that are naturally in their self interest?" There were a lot, so I couldn't at first perceive a primogenitor to the human selfishness. Then broadening to a simpler scope(ironic lol), I thought "What does every living thing compete for?" Every living must compete with another for life, which bird is earlier? Which worm dug deep enough? And thus the life, the ultimate good of anything "simple" seemed to apply to humans, descendants of such. Why wouldn't we have simple motives behind our selfishness? To survive and pass on our genes. However I think we come to a point in our modern society in which it is misapplied- while the selfish competition makes ideal sense in many aspects; sports, business, technology- it transforms into a miserly hoarding behavior, beyond just reaching "survival" and good living, but actively seeking to gratify the self solely through the others' loss. For feeding ourselves, we are selfish, but not greedy, corrupt, or any such nonsense.
Every deed a person does, no matter how righteous, benefits them somehow.
Well said, if you look at the game Fable 2, it makes a huge impact, everything, if you go around stealing and being bad you will grow a red aura, if you constantly drink beer and do stuff you shouldn't really do, it makes you grow horns and corrupt, but if you save people from bandits you'll gain a Halo, also if you never do anything slightly bad then you'll gain a blue aura
If you increase you magical abilities your veins will glow blue, if you practice in strength then you will become a tower of muscle, if you learn agile attacks then that makes you taller
And the Chaos Theory - because you affect other things too - If you (And this is a little dramatic) kill someone and in 12 years from now your dead it's fairly reasonable to believe you were killed, and when I said kill someone I meant for no reason
Mix these two up along with this one:
If you do just a small thing, let's say sneaking out for a few minutes in school - This will affect what will happen later, you could do it again and again - Meaning you will do more bad things - Thus ending up doing something out-of-line.... That's another Chaos Theory...
Add all these three up and their you have it
Not all humans are selfish - Alot of things we do are for survivability, like eating a Lion, Tigers do it, Lions do it, Panthers do it, Mammoths did it I think, i'm only saying that until we know what they want - Then we should actually continue this way.... And btw I don't think we should be totally like that, wearing fur is quite out of order in my opinion, but i'm hoping there's a way to get what we need without death, but uhh.... Might not happen..... Think about this
Caliming that all people share an innate emotion is preposterous and studies have shown this. Van Iljezdorn et al's study attempted to prove just that, and Takahashi's counter study pretty much showed the exact opposite and had much stronger evidence. Cultural differences are far more likely to influence one's behaviour than any other variable.
@ FireflyIV If you are trying to prove that not everybody is naturally selfish so that you can say that you aren't selfish, then that just proves that you are selfish too.
Nah I don't think so, I think the context shapes you, the friends you make, people you meet, knowledge you acquire will shape you. But sadly so many people are selfish. Maybe thats why Communism appeals. Equality for all! But everyone is selfish in one way or another, its kinda impossible not to be one unless you are a saint.
@ FireflyIV If you are trying to prove that not everybody is naturally selfish so that you can say that you aren't selfish, then that just proves that you are selfish too.
That's not what I am trying to do at all. I am using psychological studies to show that humans aren't innately selfish.
