Unselfish Good Deed?!?

[comic_relief]

Hey guys,

here is a philosophical question for you guys.

Is there such a thing as an unselfish good deed?

I mean is there actually an action that someone could do, that has nothing positive in it for you? That means that you get no good feelings or ideas or anything from.

I happen to say no because there is always an upside to anything. If you look into something long enough you will find an upside.

But, if you gain a feeling of good from something, does that make it selfish? Or is a feeling not counted and makes the deed unselfish?

comic_relief

 

[6-heads lewis]

aaaggh mental masturbation. i dont want to derail your thread, but as a former bookworm id recommend you not bother even thinking abotu this and try to expel all philosophical questions from your mind. one day it will come back to the question of free will, and then youre trapped.

instead of reading philosophy books, go on google and research how to improve your workouts or your hairstyle, its actually a much smarter thing to do.

of the hundreds of books ive had, the only ones im glad i bought are the three robert greene books (though art of seduction is much worse than the other two), 'watch my back' a geoff thompson book about fighting, 'the prince', and to a much lesser extent 'the system', 'the savage god: a study of suicide' , and 'the selfish gene'. the bible is usually on the floor somewhere - last week i found it under the sink.

a good cure for curiosity is schopenhauer's 'on the suffering of the world' that shut me right up.

 

[comic_relief]

Gonna be hard to expel all philosophy from my life considering that I am a philosophy major.

btw if you would like to read a few good books than read anything by Mark Victor Hansen (haven't found something bad yet about his books) or "How to win friends & influence people"

but back to topic

comic_relief

 

[BlackJackal]

There is no such thing as a selfless act, and to tell you the truth there nothing wrong about that either. Selfishness has been demonized to ridiculous proportions. Everybodies selfish. Thats not to say theres no such thing selflessness, but it's overrated. And as you have a balance between the two you're ok.

It's when there's no balance is when you have a problem with either.

 

[Ace of Flames]

I think a difference needs to be stated between doing something out of selfishness and doing something for yourself.

You're hungry. You want food. You go out and buy some food. Now, one could say this is selfish, because its taking away some of the food in the world from the rest of the population. And yet, this isn't considered a selfish act. Why? Well, food is replenishable. And like, ya kinda need it to stay alive.

You guys are thinking about this way too deep. Sure, we do nice things for other people, and we hope they return the favor someday. But I doubt that's the only thing on someone's mind when they decide to help another person. I know its not that way for me. I don't constantly think of myself and what's in it for me everytime I go outside and do something. With my lover, I don't have sex just because it feels good for me. I like to make her feel good too.

I don't think everything one does for themselves has to be considered selfish. They may do things for their own self-interest, but they also do them for other reasons.

 

[Ace of Flames]

Maybe, but subconsciously you will be thinking "what's in it for me?", you likely won't be thinking it 'yourself' and it won't be clouding your thoughts, but somewhere your brain will be weighing up if something is worth it to you.

Well yeah. But is that selfish? You might do good deeds only for the reason that it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, but I wouldn't call that selfish. You're still doing more for others than you are for yourself, even if that wasn't your intent. It might be considered selfish from the perspective of the person doing it, but from an outside standpoint, its selfless.

Maybe that's the difference. Its all a matter of perspective.

 

[comic_relief]

Good points so far guys and I am loving the discussion so far,

Well yeah. But is that selfish? You might do good deeds only for the reason that it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, but I wouldn't call that selfish. You're still doing more for others than you are for yourself, even if that wasn't your intent. It might be considered selfish from the perspective of the person doing it, but from an outside standpoint, its selfless.

Maybe that's the difference. Its all a matter of perspective.

Even if the whole world sees what your doing as selfless, but you know that you are gaining from those good feelings, does that make it selfish?

Can emotions alone make something selfish or do you need to gain something physically for it to become selfish?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where is the line for something to become selfish?

comic_relief

 

[comic_relief]

Therefore, everything that we do is considered selfish, but most of the time it is a good thing to be selfish. Even what Mother Theresa did was selfish because she gained the feeling that she did something great for humanity and that makes something worth it. I just find it very interesting.

There is no such thing as a selfless act, and to tell you the truth there nothing wrong about that either. Selfishness has been demonized to ridiculous proportions. Everybodies selfish. Thats not to say theres no such thing selflessness, but it's overrated. And as you have a balance between the two you're ok.

It's when there's no balance is when you have a problem with either.

It's also interesting that you would say that because I actually wrote a paper about "Why it is ok to become selfish" in high school and got a big fat F.

When asked why, the teacher told me that the paper was too controversial and that I should rewrite the paper. I wrote a story about Michael Jackson and three little boys and almost got expelled by her.

Just interesting.

comic_relief

 

[Ace of Flames]

Even if the whole world sees what your doing as selfless, but you know that you are gaining from those good feelings, does that make it selfish?

Can emotions alone make something selfish or do you need to gain something physically for it to become selfish?

For me, its not about gaining emotions OR material things. I see selfish acts as something negative. When I think of someone who's selfish, I think of someone who takes more than he needs, or keeps things for himself when others could really use it. Its someone who only thinks of their own well-being and happiness. And through the acts of being selfish, they possibly take away from others' well-being and happiness.

Now, you can do things with yourself in mind as the main or even only person who benefits from the act, yet still not be selfish. Your example of Mother Theresa, for instance. We'll never know for sure, but hey, she could have done everything she did just to be famous. I don't believe that that's the case, but still. Even if that was what she had in mind, she made a difference in the world for the better, and therefore it wouldn't be considered as selfish to me.

I guess the deciding factor of an act being selfish or not is in its results. Help others = Great. Just help yourself = Selfish.

 

[insanity]

i did an unselfish good deed last week. i was waiting in line to use one of the 5 atm machines and anyways i went up to the machine and the last person who was there forgot to take their bank card and it was on the account balance screen and there was 16,000$ and something in there. i could have easily taken out the 500$ limit and threw the card away but i said dammit....the ps3 can wait. so i cancelled the screen and went ot the bank teller and said somebody left their card in the machine. i felt pretty good cause i know alot of people may have taken the money.

it was funny cause my woman was telling me to go easy on the videogames lately and i was telling her i'd find a way to get the ps3 and when opportunity showed it's face, i thought i would get it the honest way

 

[Ace of Flames]

i did an unselfish good deed last week. i was waiting in line to use one of the 5 atm machines and anyways i went up to the machine and the last person who was there forgot to take their bank card and it was on the account balance screen and there was 16,000$ and something in there. i could have easily taken out the 500$ limit and threw the card away but i said dammit....the ps3 can wait. so i cancelled the screen and went ot the bank teller and said somebody left their card in the machine. i felt pretty good cause i know alot of people may have taken the money.

it was funny cause my woman was telling me to go easy on the videogames lately and i was telling her i'd find a way to get the ps3 and when opportunity showed it's face, i thought i would get it the honest way

Someone will skew this into you feeling good about yourself as being selfish.

You selfish bastard.

 

[eminence]

character - its what you do when no one else is watching.

 

[MuayThai]

Not saying somebody couldn't possibly be selfless, but, What would be the motivation?

My argument is: By the very fact that you want (Or have motivation) to do something means it's selfish: Our motivators in life are selfish, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
I believe when people are in good circumstances and happy, they will do charitable and good things. When people are unhappy and stressed, they'll do bad and "selfish" things. Of course this is a massive generalization.

There is no such thing as a selfless act, and to tell you the truth there nothing wrong about that either. Selfishness has been demonized to ridiculous proportions. Everybodies selfish. Thats not to say theres no such thing selflessness, but it's overrated. And as you have a balance between the two you're ok.

It's when there's no balance is when you have a problem with either.

I agree.

 

[Bible_Belt]

character - its what you do when no one else is watching.

except now there are video cameras everywhere, including at that atm. I commend stealing the money, but theft in full view of a camera would not have been in your self-interest either.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I say "yes" that there could be an unselfish good deed only if it's done without receiving anything from it (neither tangible nor intangible) what so ever. You'd pretty much would have to be Vulcan from Star Trek to even get close to achieving that.

 

[Nighthawk]

Like when Spock dies to save The Enterprise?

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Like when Spock dies to save The Enterprise?

Yeah, it was the "logical" thing to do as I remember it. Now, we could ask what does Spock get out of being logical, if anything other than replace the rage which they Vulcans suppress.