A very common idea is doing good for goodness's sake. I really don't think this exists. We can only experience our situation, not others'. Being altruistic because it makes you feel better is selfish. Being altruistic because you believe a higher being will reward you for it is also selfish. Really the only other motive for doing self-defined good is because of social values.
Being selfish is doing something for your own gain, without respect for others. It would be selfish if I were to see someone in need and not spare some help.
Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were not on good terms with the people of Israel. Yet this man, seeing someone who had been beaten and robbed, helped him and paid for his care. What did the Samaritan have to gain from this act? Surely not his own health. Surely not any sort of profit from the robbed man. The Samaritan did this act out of charity.
This definition of selfishness that xBHWKxUSAx gives is a lie that Satan feeds to those who will hear it, so that they will think that doing good is overrated, and that they might as well do bad in this world. people who believe this enough think, "It's all selfish, so why not get the most personal gain while I'm at it?"
The language in the scriptures is plain and simple. Many people used language to their advantage to take the plain and simple things out of the Bible. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we believe in the Bible as far as it is correctly translated. We also have the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ, which also teaches the very same principles as are taught in the Bible. The principles of charity and love.
Satan seeks to make man miserable like unto himself, and he will do anything to make it happen. Do not let him succeed at destroying you. He came close to destroying me, but I found hope where once there was sorrow. My outlook on the world has changed since then. I see the real greed and selfishness that goes on. I see companies begging for money when they have used theirs dishonestly. I see people robbing others for money. It makes the charitable deeds stand out that much more.
People do not do things so they can say they are charitable. They do it because they know it's the right thing to do. If you claim you are a charitable person, then you have been selfish. You are selfless if others tell stories about you helping them when they were in need.
I personally have never gotten the warm fuzzy feeling inside, but I am told that I am selfless. I do not think I am selfless. I only think that I am doing what I feel is the right thing to do. I don't really care when others persecute me, because I know I have done the right thing.
I agree that the OP is flawed because the theme as posed is generalized.
To: MageGrayWolf, that's ok, Linktopast30 is allowed to give his opinion since the OP asked for "our thoughts".
I would like to give an example of selflessness vs selfishness. I have sacrificed a career for the opportunity to be a caregiver before my folks died. I also chose to sacrifice career over raising my son myself instead of allowing strangers at the daycare center he was enrolled at start abusing him. I didn't do these things for any self gain or reward. I simply couldn't live with myself if I hadn't given care to my loved ones.
I look at it this way, every action is a choice. We either choose to do the right thing or we choose not to. Choosing not to do the right thing is the most selfish act of all because you have chosen not to be involved.
I have sacrificed a career for the opportunity to be a caregiver before my folks died. I also chose to sacrifice career over raising my son myself instead of allowing strangers at the daycare center he was enrolled at start abusing him.
How is this at all selfless? You devoted yourself to your immediate family, which is exactly what one would expect from a social organism centered around familial groups.
To: MrWalker, I really tried to condense the following...
I used to think the same thing until the attorney, the sheriff and my brothers doctor all told me how lucky my brother was to have a sis like me and keep him home instead of shipping him off to some nursing home facility. That's the true point I was trying to make because so many people, my cousins included become overwhelmed with trying to run their own homes. Then add the additional stress of being the major caregiver and administrator for their immediate families simultaneously. I lived close to my parents but was 200 miles away from my brother the last year of his life.
I was on the road so much that year that I told my husband I was going to meet myself on 421.
Not all reasons are selfish, as stated by Zidane Tribune in FFIX, "Do I need a reason to help someone?" not all actions are selfish, I just help people because I feel its the right thing to do, I have never really had heaven at the forthought of my mind, I open the door for someone because it's a nice thing to do and makes others feel good, I give food to the food bank because I don't want to see someone suffer, to state that all actions are selfish only implies that you view your own actions and the actions of those around, every action has an oppposite ande equal reaction, the action caused you to feel good, not because you wanted it, but because you did it. Right now I may be "selfish" for defending my prinicples, but all in all you can't judge every action as selfish, some people don't do it to feel good about themselves, the just feel good after-the-fact.
I'm not necessarily trying to evangelize, MageGrayWolf. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I had just been arguing about it on a different thread (ahem).
Being selfish is doing something for your own gain, without respect for others. It would be selfish if I were to see someone in need and not spare some help.
OK - true...
Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were not on good terms with the people of Israel. Yet this man, seeing someone who had been beaten and robbed, helped him and paid for his care. What did the Samaritan have to gain from this act? Surely not his own health. Surely not any sort of profit from the robbed man. The Samaritan did this act out of charity.
Was the Samaritan doing it for his own "gain?" Well, not necessarily "gain" in one sense of the word, but you would not seriously argue that the action made him unhappy, would you? The Samaritan was doing this action for his happiness. You may interpret this as being selfish. People like to think of this action as holy, but there is no holiness about it - you are still doing this action for yourself only, because it makes you happy. Because someone derives happiness from a positive action does not mean that this action is not unselfish.
If you take the OP's definition of the word selfish (or at least how I interpret how he is trying to use the word), then this action can still be interpreted as being conducive to the Samaritan's happiness, and thus (although the definition seems off) selfish.
This definition of selfishness that xBHWKxUSAx gives is a lie that Satan feeds to those who will hear it, so that they will think that doing good is overrated, and that they might as well do bad in this world. people who believe this enough think, "It's all selfish, so why not get the most personal gain while I'm at it?"
Yep, he's going to hell. :P
We should not listen to Satan, for we cannot gain anything from listening to evil. Evil should be censored, because the weak - the inferior-minded people are too easily swayed; too imbecile to comprehend the faults in the ideas. These people are better off left being decided for by authority and told to obey.
The language in the scriptures is plain and simple. Many people used language to their advantage to take the plain and simple things out of the Bible. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we believe in the Bible as far as it is correctly translated. We also have the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ, which also teaches the very same principles as are taught in the Bible. The principles of charity and love.
A very nice paragraph detailing nothing important to the discussion.
Satan seeks to make man miserable like unto himself, and he will do anything to make it happen. Do not let him succeed at destroying you. He came close to destroying me, but I found hope where once there was sorrow. My outlook on the world has changed since then. I see the real greed and selfishness that goes on. I see companies begging for money when they have used theirs dishonestly. I see people robbing others for money. It makes the charitable deeds stand out that much more.
In fact, you cannot help but do things that are conducive to your happiness and see it that way and simultaneously act rationally. It's impossible.
My personal conclusion: The only way to fight Satan is to act irrationally.
Not all reasons are selfish, as stated by Zidane Tribune in FFIX, "Do I need a reason to help someone?" not all actions are selfish, I just help people because I feel its the right thing to do, I have never really had heaven at the forthought of my mind, I open the door for someone because it's a nice thing to do and makes others feel good, I give food to the food bank because I don't want to see someone suffer, to state that all actions are selfish only implies that you view your own actions and the actions of those around, every action has an oppposite ande equal reaction, the action caused you to feel good, not because you wanted it, but because you did it. Right now I may be "selfish" for defending my prinicples, but all in all you can't judge every action as selfish, some people don't do it to feel good about themselves, the just feel good after-the-fact.
I am sure that all these reasons that you state here make the person who performs the action miserable and filled with sadness - otherwise, they would gain happiness from them, and that would be selfish...
woah sorry if im late, and i didnt read all of this, but
buying candy out of goodwill to give to others is NOT selfish, NOT because you feel good afterwards.
think: you know what suffering feels like, so you know that nobody wants it, right? if you are a nice person, you dont want others to suffer too. the same goes for joy, you want others to be joyful too.
so, out of goodwill, you make others joyful, because you know how everyone wants to be happy. (so you give them the candy)
you could just as easily do other things to be happy, so going out of your way to do something doesnt make you more selfish.
LOL at all the people who say "_____ is not selfish" and then explain why it is simultaneously for your and other's benefit. If you understood what the OP meant, then you would realize that your arguments are self-refuting.
In fact, you cannot help but do things that are conducive to your happiness and see it that way and simultaneously act rationally. It's impossible.
It's not necessarily impossible to do all that and act rational at the same time. I know most of the things I hear of are just hyped up in the news (which I rarely keep up with, btw). News media companies are good at making mountains out of molehills. But I still do see the greed and dishonesty. And I also do see the true charitable acts. Tell me if I didn't understand you here.
We should not listen to Satan, for we cannot gain anything from listening to evil. Evil should be censored, because the weak - the inferior-minded people are too easily swayed; too imbecile to comprehend the faults in the ideas. These people are better off left being decided for by authority and told to obey.
I almost can't tell if this is meant to mock me or is just your opinion. In my religion, we believe that Lucifer (now Satan) wanted exactly that - to force everyone to do good so they would all make it back to heaven.
My family and I were talking about scriptures we had read last night, and one of them talked about how it's evil if you are doing a charitable act just to get noticed. Therefore, that kind of charitable act is selfish. If you do a charitable act without yourself in mind (removing yourself from the equation), then the act is not selfish at all.
Also, even if you are doing something just for the good feeling it invokes, then it's debatable. But I don't think the parable of the Good Samaritan illustrated that the Samaritan did that. It was more illustrating "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." I think it more implied that it was the right thing to do.
When you have a religious background like mine, it's impossible to see all charitable acts as selfish. Instead, you see the ones that are for personal gain or for worldly attention (like what most companies do for PR), as evil/selfish.
LOL at all the people who say "_____ is not selfish" and then explain why it is simultaneously for your and other's benefit. If you understood what the OP meant, then you would realize that your arguments are self-refuting.
laughing yet not even listening to what i said? ~_~
you're helping someone for their sake, and feeling good is a reward, sorta. i told you if you doing everything was selfish, then you would just watch TV at home, eat cheetohs, or something else fun. (but you decide to help someone else..)
you're helping someone for their sake, and feeling good is a reward, sorta. i told you if you doing everything was selfish, then you would just watch TV at home, eat cheetohs, or something else fun. (but you decide to help someone else..)
I agree with this. I watch tv and see programms where animals are neglected and all sort of horrible things. I want to help them, because i feel so sorry for them that they have such kind of situation. That's why i want to donate money to things like WNF and IFAW. I also donated money to KIKA so that they can find a cure for cancer very soon and people don't have to miss their family or friend who has died of cancer.
I feel with them, because my sister has died of it. Does it make me selfish that i want to make sure other people don't get in such a situation? I don't think so.
I think the OP defines selfishness as any deed that rewards the doer in any sort of way. This is too generalised as one can see selfishness and selflessness as two ends of a scale.
I view selflessness as an act which benefits others without the intent for any personal gain, such as money or approval, but knowing you have done the right thing is the reward in of itself.
To say that feeling good about yourself afterwards is selfish goes against my ideology that taking in the wellfare of others as a mode for one's own happiness is the epitome of selflessness and near enough the definition of altruism.
I guess you could say that feeling good is still a gain, which you can then define as selfish. You can go around labelling everything as either selfish or selfless but why not label something neither?
Knowing that you have done the right thing is a direct result of doing the right thing and is only an after effect that has no implications to the deed itself, so why label is selfish? If you were to compare this to say; helping a rich guy so that he would give you money, you could say helping the rich guy is selfish. And rightly so, as you did not help him with his wellfare in mind, only your own. However, I dont see how helping someone because you know it's the right thing to do is selfish in any way, as knowing you've done the right thing has the other person's wellfare in mind. You could argue that it has therefore both the other person's and your own wellfare in mind, thus it is impossible to be truely selfless. But this is a big leap from selfishness.
