Does anyone feel anything or are all our actions ultimately governed by selfish needs?

Answer 1

This is a very interesting question and the answer is not 100 percent by any means. There are many different theories on the selfishness of the human individual. One great one that I personally find very helpful in answering this question is the lemSelfish Gene Theory proposed by Richard Dawkins. What he basically says is that humans are innately predisposed by evolution to be as selfish as possible, not necessarily to yourself, but to your genes. That is to say the following: your brothers and your sisters all share exactly 50 percent of your genes by nature. So if hypothetically you were in a situation where you had to sacrifice yourself to save more than 2 of your brothers or sisters, you would likely make the sacrifice. This may seem counterintuitive, since it is not immediately selfish. However, the theory shows how your GENES would ultimately live on through your siblings' offspring and your brain knows this. There are many groups of animals that exhibit striking acts of both selfishness and unselfishness. Take the penguin for example. When a penguin prepares to enter the water, he will not do so without the rest of his group. Why? Because sea lions, who have always preyed upon them, would have eaten the ancestors of penguins that chose to go in alone. As it turns out, those penguins who jump into the water with other penguins have a much less likely chance of being eaten and thus increase their chance of passing on their genes to their offspring and surviving for future generations. This is known as the dilution effect and can be found among many other species. On the other hand, bees, seemingly the most unselfish creatures on the planet, actually commit suicide to save the hive when it appears to be in danger. How can you justify a creature killing itself for another as a selfish act? As it turns out, the selfish genes of the bee are related to other bees by 75% as opposed to the human 50%. In addition, these bees have no reproductive properties and are merely clones and the survival of the queen bee is so much more important for the passing on of the bees genes. Thus, while the bee willingly sacrifices itself and ultimately dies, the bee can survive through its siblings and the queen. I hope I have given you an adequate explanation. See Richard Dawkins' work listed below for more information.

Answer 2

I think ultimately we all are governed by our own selfish needs. Not all our actions may be seen as selfish though. It's obvious when someone does something to improve their own status in the work place, school, sports, etc. then those are selfish acts. But other things like helping your friends, doing good deeds, etc. that may be seen as you helping others. However, why do we do things for others? We do them because we wish to be noticed by someone/somethig or to feel better about ourselves. So my answer is Yes. All our actions are ultimately governed by selfish needs. If it's something we choose to do, then it's selfish. And I can't thing of anything that isn't technically selfish, because even when given an order from a boss, teacher, etc. you always have the option to say no which stands to reason that you still act on your own selfishness.

Think about it.

Answer 3

Virtually everything we do is for selfish reasons, there are always a few exceptions that include spur of the moment heroism because when you see a guy about to fall off of a cliff and decide to try and save him I don't believe you have time to process selfish needs. But when we do charity work why do we do it? We do it so that we feel like we are doing something to help others which makes us feel good. I think selfish is a bad way to put it though because even though we do it so that we feel good about ourselves we are helping others and we are enjoying it and there is nothing wrong with that. Another example is going to work everyday. Why do we do it? Because we need the money. Whether we like or job or not is irrelevant because we still get up and go do work so we can make money. Its human nature to do things that make our life better and make us feel good.

Answer 4

Well, I think parenting for most people would be the exception to the otherwise generalization that people are only motivated by self interest. Once you become a parent, I think many times parents do things for their children with the best interests of the child in mind. Although there are many parents, of course, that still make selfish choices when it comes to their own children.

Think back to your own childhood. Weren't there things that your parents did for you that did not seem selfish? If your answer is no, this could be an insight for you as to why you perceive all people in all situations as being only selfishly motivated.

Answer 5

It is said that everything we do is selfish. Even things that are not normally considered as selfish, such as giving or helping people in need. The payback is the good and holy feeling it gives us. People who have a lot of money often have a positive need to give, to make them feel better about thenselves. Bringing up children might be consisered difficult and unselfish, but it is naturally programmed into us to do it. You could regard having lots of children as selfish. When we do a truly unselfish thing, we have generally been told to do it, or are shamed into it.

Answer 6

In a way yes. A person can feel an intense need to do something good to someone, but deep down it is only to satisfy their own needs. So it is a matter of the lesser of two evils. You can satisfy your own selfish need to help someone by helping someone else, or you can be selfish and not help them, either way you are being selfish but at least with the first one, someone else benefits.

Answer 7

Don't get the question. If your actions are governed by selfish needs, you're still feeling something. The feeling is "me, me, me".

This should be a familiar feeling to all you baby boomers out there.

Answer 8

Ultimately we are governed by selfish needs. Altruism evolved as a self-serving mechanism.

Answer 9

Yes I completely agree. All actions are selfish to some degree.

Answer 10

honestly, some are real feelings, but mostly selfish. it is only human and sometimes not intentional to be so selfish. Only in the BB house is everything so selfish and never honest feelings. it is all greed!!!