/kind/ - Random Acts of Kindness★

When did the word selfish start being used to describe anything that could conceivably be motivated by any amount of self interest? These are the meanings I'm aware of.

Selfish: concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others

: arising from concern with one's own welfare or advantage in disregard of others

No, OP.

If both parties feel better, that sounds like a win-win situation to me.

>>33959

>When did the word selfish start being used to describe anything that could conceivably be motivated by any amount of self interest?

Maybe selfish isn't the right word here. We have this discussion a lot, and the main issue is that there is no such thing as altruism.

Even the most ultimate and painful sacrifices are actually self-serving. Like giving your life, or all of your possessions away for a cause. You do it because you want to be looked to as an example, or to absolve yourself of guilt, or to feel like a good person.

In my opinion, this does not take away from a good act. But of course, you knew that, or we wouldn't both be here on this board.

>>33963

>altruism

Do you think altruism means absolute selflessness?

>You do it because

Don't you mean you assume they do it for those reasons? I don't see how you could know without the ability to read their mind.

The line of reasoning I'm seeing here is:

There's a byproduct to helping others, therefore that is necessarily the helper's motivation

How exactly are their true intentions being determined?

>>33964

>Do you think altruism means absolute selflessness?

It means to benefit another at one's own expense. But this is simply not possible. You always exchange your resources for some manner of reward.

>The line of reasoning I'm seeing here is:

>There's a byproduct to helping others, therefore that is necessarily the helper's motivation

You're missing the problem outlined in the OP: if there is no motivation, there is no good deed.

>>33967

>You actually never had a person in your life you'd be willing to die for?

You did not read my post. I specifically talked about situations where you give up your life.

Simply put, do you know how parents tend to support and motivate their children to accomplish the things they themselves always wanted to accomplish? Giving up your life is something you do for the satisfaction of knowing that someone else will carry on in your stead, or remember you fondly, or even guarantee you an afterlife.

>If all actions were selfish, the word "selfish" in consequence wouldn't exist, because a word in nature defines a meaning to set it apart from everything else.

Just because we are incapable of something, does not mean we are incapable of imagining it. In fact, we routinely dream up figures which are impossibly better than ourselves in fiction, science, and religion.

Don't listen to these spooks OP

Kindness is born out of a self-arisen desire to be kind. I am here because kindness is pleasing to me. Anybody who says otherwise is either trying to sell you something or has been spooked into thinking that selfishness and altruism are antithetical (they aren't).

>>33970

>But this is simply not possible

There are bad deals in the world. Where one party is met with significant gain and the other is met with significant loss. If I make a risky deal with a business partner where they end up gaining money and I lose just as much. That deal was at my expense regardless of what I thought I would gain prior to the deal. Without equivalent exchange there is an expense. An act of kindness without a reasonable equivalent exchange is altruism.

>reward

You seem to be assuming all rewards are equivalent, I don't. That's the difference here. Losing your life and all that existence has to offer to save someone else's isn't an equivalent exchange regardless of reward or byproduct.

>if there is no motivation

There is obviously a motative. That's not in depute here. Assumptions about specific motives or types of motives and how they are being determined is