Discussion Do you agree that human beings are inherently selfish?

[Kain10th]

In other words it's just human nature to be selfish?

 

[TAW122]

I voted strongly agree because humans through history and time have always been selfish for their own gain (and eventually collectively as a tribe, a state, a nation, etc.). This selfishness value has evolved overtime as it has allowed the human race to flourish, at the cost of other living things and species as well as at times, their own (humans and mankind).

 

[Worthless_nobody]

Strongly agree. I think they are selfish because people lie, cheat, steal and step on others for personal gain. It's been going on since the dawn of time (wars, plundering, conquering other lands and killing natives etc) It's all about chasing the almighty money and exploiting people where you can to get what you want. That's just another reason I'll ctb I'm not cut out for this cut throat competition world.

 

[Brick In The Wall]

I voted for agree. It's definitely a survival mechanism built into us. But there are still groups that are able to survive and thrive while also being selfless.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Selfishness is a necessary evolutionary trait required to survive and prosper. However...it also builds in inherent obsolescence. The selfishness humanity required to get itself to this point is the thing that will also drive us to extinction. I suspect that all intelligent species have this characteristic.
It may be theoretically possible to get beyond this, but it would require stopping prioritizing the importance of the individual and adopting altruism in order to act in the best interest of the species rather than individual societies, groups or people.
But that would be in direct conflict with what has brought us to this point, so it would involve a hacking of our consciousness and I'm not sure if that's possible.
Maybe that is our test and maybe that is one of the reasons why we haven't met aliens yet. They too face this metastatic paradigm shift and most will fail and become extinct in the natural order of things.

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/posts/749628/

 

[Shinkansen]

selfishness has turned apes into men.

 

[XYZ]

Strongly agree. And you wanna know why? Coz I'm as selfish as they come. I'm all about me, me, me. I don't think I've ever formed a sentence that didn't inclide the pronouns I, me, my in my entire life. Except for maybe "Did Trump just win the election?"

I believe we are all selfish but people are too proud to admit it. I have nothing left to lose, so I have no probs saying I'm a selfish bastard.

 

[casctb]

My philosophy is that everyone acts in their own self interest in everything, not necessarily selfish, but that's pretty much just semantics. I don't believe there is such a thing as selflessness because for every act of "selflessness" you gain something whether it's meaning, fulfillment, happiness, etc. Every livingbeing survives by caring about themselves and caring about others increases chances of survival which in turn increases their chances of survival. That's just how we function.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

My philosophy is that everyone acts in their own self interest in everything, not necessarily selfish, but that's pretty much just semantics. I don't believe there is such a thing as selflessness because for every act of "selflessness" you gain something whether it's meaning, fulfillment, happiness, etc. Every livingbeing survives by caring about themselves and caring about others increases chances of survival which in turn increases their chances of survival. That's just how we function.

I think that is spot on in 99.9% of cases.
But...
Recently I heard about an older person giving up their place on a ventilator for COVID so that a younger person could take their place. The older person died. Admittedly, it wasn't clear about any underlying considerations, but there ARE a vanishingly tiny number of people who perform selfless acts who will not benefit from them in any way at all.
And of course, mother's or father's sacrificing their lives for their offspring are well documented. Sometimes preserving your genetic heritage or the survival of the species takes precedence over individual concerns.
But yes, this is rare.

 

[casctb]

I think that is spot on in 99.9% of cases.
But...
Recently I heard about an older person giving up their place on a ventilator for COVID so that a younger person could take their place. The older person died. Admittedly, it wasn't clear about any underlying considerations, but there ARE a vanishingly tiny number of people who perform selfless acts who will not benefit from them in any way at all.
And of course, mother's or father's sacrificing their lives for their offspring are well documented. Sometimes preserving your genetic heritage or the survival of the species takes precedence over individual concerns.
But yes, this is rare.

You may have a point but I do think that that person that gave up that ventilator did gain something, I don't think they died feeling truly awful and purposeless. I believe due to our differing survival mechanisms, that can sometimes contrast with each other, certain survival mechanisms win over the other but there's always something to gain. For example one might choose to follow the fear of losing a sense of community over the fear of death, both survival mechanisms, but in every choice you gain something even while dying, just a matter of perspective. If that makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

The human brain just takes things in and puts out feelings that guide your actions; you're only really capable of acting on your own feelings, not other people's. Sure you may be able to empathize, but ultimately that is still just you serving your feelings which are being influenced by someone else's. I think the idea of true selflessness isn't realistic, and really doing helpful things for selfish reasons is valid and shouldn't be thought of negatively.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

You may have a point but I do think that that person that gave up that ventilator did gain something, I don't think they died feeling truly awful and purposeless. I believe due to our differing survival mechanisms, that can sometimes contrast with each other, certain survival mechanisms win over the other but there's always something to gain. For example one might choose to follow the fear of losing a sense of community over the fear of death, both survival mechanisms, but in every choice you gain something even while dying, just a matter of perspective. If that makes sense.

Yes, that makes sense. People may feel they gain more even if it looks to others like they lose everything. Also, in
that near death situation, religion may play a part. There may be a perceived gain beyond life itself.
I still think it's interesting that there are circumstances where the welfare of others or the wider community can take precedence over an individual's life.
Accepting that it's rare, it may speak of an even deeper evolutionary imperative than preserving one's own life. That could go hand in hand with a perceived personal gain, the two need not be mutually exclusive.

 

[Thinking]

I voted for agree because it is biologically beneficial to be selfish. More food/water/recourses= better survival. Combine that with an ego and it gets out of hand

 

[AllReturnsToNothing]

I voted disagree not because I actually fully disagree, my position is more neutral I think. I think that humans are inherently selfish, but selfishness isn't the extant of human behavior. I see it more as a dualistic sort of thing where humans are inherently selfish and desire self-preservation, but humans are also inherently kind. The selfish behavior is descended from our lower mammal ancestors who didn't live in large social groups to survive while our kindness is a uniquely human trait that evolved as we banded together to achieve things we couldn't alone. Ideally it should be like a yin and yang dynamic, but it seems that far too many people skew that dynamic, maybe because they were never shown how to share.

 

[dec132013]

100% lmfao, was practically taught it.
Back when i was in elementary school, we were told to be kind and help others because
A) it'll make us feel good to know we did something good
B) it'll make us go to heaven

Obviously with this logic selfishness isn't always bad, but tbh I can't imagine there being many scenarios where an act is technically completely unselfish

 

[Skathon]

"Inherently"? It is one of their instincts, I suppose, yet most should potentially be able to ignore/suppress such impulses. Though, some individuals may also be born without it.