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.
If everything you did wasn't selfish then you would offer to sell yourself as a slave
Talking about two opposites.. Making yourself a slave is REALLY drastically and everybody is selfish once a while and selfless. The one person is only more selfish than the other.
But i don't know it selling yourself as a slave is selfless.. Maybe you are the sm-like-type and you gain pleasure from being ordered around so much. If it's that way, it's selfish. Also maybe you can't live on your own and the other option is living on the street, because you want to have a home/food/water you sell yourself as a slave, then it's also selfish.
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.
I think it's selfless, you do not make the choice to help someone else with the consideration that you feel good afterwards. At least, i didn't do that. Feeling happy/feeling sad is just an emotion. If i see someone cry i feel bad too, if someone smiles a lot, i feel good too. So i think it has nothing to do with selflessness and selfishness but with a hormone that came out of your hypothalamus.
But i don't know it selling yourself as a slave is selfless.. Maybe you are the sm-like-type and you gain pleasure from being ordered around so much. If it's that way, it's selfish. Also maybe you can't live on your own and the other option is living on the street, because you want to have a home/food/water you sell yourself as a slave, then it's also selfish.
The point is that no matter what you do, you're helping yourself one way or another. Maybe not materialistically, but there is always a gain to you. If I give a homeless guy $5, its because I feel bad and I want to satisfy my own morals. By giving him money, I feel better because I live up to my sense of morality.
Giving yourself as a slave is the extremest action I could think of that would not satisfy you in anyway.
Giving yourself as a slave is the extremest action I could think of that would not satisfy you in anyway.
No - mutilating yourself when you didn't want to mutilate yourself - an action that you didn't want to do but did anyway. Such things are 1. Very rare and 2. Irrational.
I do not disagree with the OP post. However, being selfish isn't bad, so long as it does not hurt others. Selfish is just a term for how you act, like I could say i'm caring, but I only care about you because you make my lunch and dinner. It can go both ways.
