You might say things like giving to charity, volunteering to build homes, or putting the desires of your friends before your own are selfless.
However, all of these actions stem from your own ideologies. You believe that for some reason or another, whether it is religion, morality, god's will, whatever, you should do the above actions. Consequently, doing these charitable acts gives you a kind of satisfaction that you have done what you believed in. This satisfaction has to outweigh any costs of helping the other people (the $100 donation, 10 hours of time, etc). If this is the case, then you are still putting your desires first; you are just weighing more intangible things (the benefits of doing what you believe in) against the costs of helping other people.
How do you get around this problem?
2007-09-06
15:17:26
·
24 answers
·
asked by
bob135
4
in
Philosophy