Is there a selfless action?

[ConiectoErgoSum]

Is there really a truly selfless, did-it-for-goodness-sake action one can do?

if one helps someone, without any financial or social benefit to themself, then is it just the good feeling you get that motivates you, or is it something else?

[bjs]

Reflecting on Devilry's question, why have you tried to act out of purely good motives? We have this sense that we aught to be selfless. Does catering to that innate sense, make us feel better about ourselves? Why?

I don’t think that there can be an innate sense of selflessness. If an act makes us feel better about ourselves, and that is why we do it, then that act is not selfless.

Perhaps we could say that there is an innate desire to help other people in order to gain a positive feeling about myself.

Yet I don’t think this covers the true experience. In my own life, and in my observation of others, people make sacrifices that, by all appearances, far outweigh any emotional gain. The cost – be it physical or emotional – is much greater than the gain and a person must struggle to overcome her own inclinations and desires to do what she knows is right.




Personally, my motivation starts with faith in God. Since I believe in Christ, I believe that there is a loving Father who desires for me to do what it good. Since there is a God, it means that there is also a moral order – a right and wrong that I ought to obey apart from any self-gain.

Someone could rightly accuse me of still acting, at least in part, out of selfish desires. Perhaps as a Christian I gain an even greater euphoria from helping others and that is my motivation. Or perhaps, despite my belief in grace, underneath I still think that I need to earn God’s love to gain rewards in the next life.

I make efforts to do what is right only because it is right and not because of these other motivations. But then maybe my desire to do what is right because it is right is just these other motivations working their way into my life in a different fashion.

This is why I say that I don’t know if I have ever acted out of purely good and selfless motivations.

[freeman]

A selfless act is one that benefits others. If one gives their life for the benefit of others, it is the greatest act of friendship one can give.
This is the very basis of what Christians call The Way. It is not done for self satisfaction. It is done because it benefits everyone. We, as individuals, are part of the whole. It is an act of love.

[tar2]

Is there really a truly selfless, did-it-for-goodness-sake action one can do?

if one helps someone, without any financial or social benefit to themself, then is it just the good feeling you get that motivates you, or is it something else?

ConiectoErgoSum,

I think it depends on who is keeping score.

Regards, TAR

[McCulloch]

I think it depends on who is keeping score.

If it depends on someone keeping score, then it is not truly selfless.

[tar2]

McCulloch,

Well as was stated before, when you give yourself up for the good of the collective, or for the good of some other entity of which you feel a part, you are being selfless from your standpoint, but selfish from the standpoint of the entity on whose behalf you are acting.

The actions of a suicide bomber can be scored differently by members of her sect, the bomber's mother, or the victim's mom.

Regards, TAR

[McCulloch]

Well as was stated before, when you give yourself up for the good of the collective, or for the good of some other entity of which you feel a part, you are being selfless from your standpoint, but selfish from the standpoint of the entity on whose behalf you are acting.

The actions of a suicide bomber can be scored differently by members of her sect, the bomber's mother, or the victim's mom.

Suicide could be a selfless act, without regard to who is keeping score. The person is giving up all that she can know that she has in that act. Unless life has become unbearable or she has some kind of delusion about what comes after, it would be a selfless act.

[tar2]

The person is giving up all that she can know that she has in that act.

McCulloch,

But is she not doing it for the good of the sect of which she feels a part? Does she not include the sect, in her feeling of self?

Regards, TAR