If helping people makes you feel good, are you doing it for them or for you?
How many people would do a truly selfless act if they had not even self-respect to gain from it?
We've seen how people act horribly if they are raised in a horrible culture, but what is it that makes a person do something that is truly selfless?
Is that person genetically different? I think the ability to act selflessly is the evolutionary peak, and a human being capable of a selfless act is fundamentally different to one that lives solely based off of the dopamine rewards system our society creates that rewards certain actions.
The latter are just very advanced and complex beasts of instinct like any other animal.
Do you believe there is a single person alive capable of true selflessness?
>>80457767
OP here, ID change
>Do you believe there is a single person alive capable of true selflessness?
Physical impossibility, so no.
>>80458016
I like to think I would do the right thing in a hypothetical vacuum, but I do want to think of my self as a good person thus I stand to gain a type of personal validation from any act that I perceive as "good", so I have no way of knowing if I could be selfless.
People will come into this thread and say that selfless humans are those that lay down their lives for others, but many folks, myself included, would be happy to die for a good cause, so you would still be acting on a sort of validation.
>>80458389
Correct. 'Selflessness' doesn't truly exist.
>>80457767
I agree OP, selflessness isn't a thing except as shorthand for the joy you get from helping others.
>>80457767
You need a hypothetical situation which would be a selfless act.
There are people who are primarily motivated by their moral code and would never break it.
Giving back a wallet is pretty damn close to selfless if the guy is a dick about it afterword.
>>80458523
>>80458724
This is the redpill I didn't want to take.
>>80458797
I think those who live by a moral code, and act based on the self validation from that are good people, if the word good even holds any meaning.
But they are not selfless.
The only hypothetically situation is if you could flick a switch that could completely cut off all your emotions and feedback loops.
Would you still make a decision to help another at detriment to yourself?
Unfortunately I think the answer is obviously no.
>>80459317
Selflessness does exist, it is however extremely rare. Humans aren't brought up to be heroes.
>>80459460
I suppose the real question from me out of all this is:
Does wanting to be a good person, and acting on that desire by helping others, make you a good person?
I believe it does.
I think I have to believe that.
What about how we feel pity when we see another human suffering?
How does that emotion help us in any way evolutionarily?
Even if you genuinely like to see others happy, it's all self-driven. In short, everything you do is selfish.
>>80460248
true
