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Goodness
Imagine, if you will, an old lady crossing the street. A young man, a stranger, takes her by the hand and helps her across. The lady smiles and thanks him, and he is on his way.
Altruism could be defined (for the purpose of this article) to mean doing good deeds and service work for others out of the goodness of one's own heart. Perhaps that young man's act may hence be described as altruistic.
But then again, maybe not.
It is only logical that every individual acts for his own good, that every intentional, purposeful course of action taken by him is to his benefit. No action by any individual is ever really done for any other purpose than self-betterment. It is simply not possible to do something purely out of the goodness of your heart.
After all, why would anyone want to do something that had absolutely zero benefit for him?
The act described above seems to be one of a completely altruistic nature. However, it makes no sense for the man to be doing it solely out of the goodness of his heart. It is more likely that he is, perhaps, he desires to be acknowledged for his good deed. Of course, this may not be the case all the time, but the man is definitely doing it to his own perceived advantage.
One of the reasons that there is not altrusim is that human beings have it programmed in them to act selfishly. The simple act of drawing one's hand away from a hot flame is the instinctive reaction of any human. It is the instinct for self-preservation. Genetic programming makes us out to be inherently selfish.
It is possible that the individual really desires to do good for the opposite party, and it is also possible that the individual is really doing it out of the goodness of his heart, but this is not altruism. In this case, the benefit to individual would be great enough to sacrifice the resources required to do this deed.
Taking into account a real life example, say, of a person who is faced with a donation tin on a flag day. He donates, but this is not an altruistic act because he is only doing it so he can escape the guilt he will experience should he not donate. He donates, not for the good of the organization collecting money, but for himself.
Hence, "Altruism" itself is just a flawed term, and should not be used in any context except to disprove it's existence simply because it does not exist.
12:02 AM | link
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