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?
Human nature has proven retainable. No it's not always easy to tone down one's selfish desires, yet it is possible to do so over a period of selflessness and the enlightenment that occurs as a result (similar to what many Buddhists and Taoists believe.)
But not everyone will ever be willing and ready to help their comrades out before themselves, some group of people will always continue to choose self over society.
it is a simple, and undeniable fact that people do things for others which cause harm to themselves. Now, if you take this fact into account, the evolutionary argument cannot really prevail, ie the idea that humans MUST put themselves first or they would not survive, clearly we are more complex, reasoning beings than that... you may then say that you only do this thing that hurts you because it makes you feel good in another way, or you may get a reward from it, so you COULD have always been doing it with this in mind. However, even if your motive was to get something out of it, that is not a selfish act, im sure there are ways of getting whatever it is that involve hurting olthers rather than yourself. simply because you have self-interest, that does not make you selfish, you still have some kind of moral code which you apply to how you treat others, yes? i think we can generally agree that life is not entirely a free for all :P
Yes, being selfish is a natural behavior that ensure a persons survival. All animals insâ� ictually want to survive. Humans are the only ones that can override this and save others, etc. But we still have those feelings, and since we developed material things, not just things that we absolutely need for survival such as shelter, food, and tools, our selfish tendencies apply to those too. Theres no way around it. You can teach yourself and be raised to be giving and unselfish because we have the ability to do that, but internally we still want things, and many things. We can tone it down tho, and be giving and courteous.
Not all humans are selfish, but in the Western world individualist thinking is encouraged. When driving through Nigeria a couple of years back I broke down in the middle of nowhere. About 150 miles from the nearest large settlement. I waited for about an hour. A herdsman walked by and I explained to him my predicament. He came back a day later on a bike with food an water for a week and told me he would go and get help. Sure enough, a week later a cart with the parts needed to fix my car arrived. They fixed my car and gave me more food and water and sent me on my way. I offered them payment. About £200 worth, a hell of a lot in Nigeria. They refused it outright, and seemed a little insulted that I presumed to pay them. In my mind, that demonstrates that different cultures are very different and that not all humans are naturally selfish.
Most humans can be thought of as balancing factors that lead them to behave purely in self-interest, and factors that lead them to behave co-operatively (for the purposes of self-interest). By definition any action and decision must be made with some element of self-interest in mind. But this is probably not what you had in mind when you think "selfish".
The humans that can't be summed up like these are generally termed "sociopaths".
It is not entirely possible to control your human nature. That's just the way it works. The only people who do not apply are our beliefs, just like czecha said above. Since I have no beliefs, (back off, jackals) no one is in my mind perfect.
