Do you beleive in purely selfless acts? Give me an example?

Question

There is a notion that every behavior, no matter how altruistic it seems, on average bears some sort of benefit for the doer.

Answer 1

here's my selfless act for the day: my coworker was debating to have another piece of pizza for lunch but she was thinking about her weight. i solved her dilemma by eating the last slice of pizza. in this situation, i sacrificed myself to gain that extra inch of fat on my azz, instead of hers. hehehe...

Answer 2

The Logic of Selflessness

As long as we live it is impossible to be without self. In death, when all comes to an end, the body, the brain, and all the memories, thoughts, wishes, and emotions we had (which form our consciousness, or soul) there can be no self.

A self-less act would be an act done not for or by the self. If I give someone ten dollars as a charitable act, we call that a self-less act. But no action we take is without reason. The reason we give to charity is part of our self, not somebody else's self. It can only be our reason (whatever it might be). That reason is what satisfies us, while the ten dollars we give satisfy someone else. We don't realize that in any give or take transaction there is a hidden trade. We trade ten dollars for a personal reason. That means that we value to have a sense of charity, at that time, at that moment, which is worth ten dollars.

The richer we are, the higher might be the trade between what we value as a sense of charity and the money we give. All our actions are justified in some way by our minds. That's why there cannot be selfless actions.

Answer 3

At a technical level, I suppose that's true. Even the parent who throws themself between a bullet and their child, dying as a result, benefits from knowing that they have tried to save their child. But I think on a less technical level, people engage in selfless acts all the time. Today somebody let me go ahead of them in the grocery line. What was really in it for them, except maybe feeling like they had extended me some kindness. If we can't count that, I guess I'd say that since it is impossible to detach yourself from "the self" that you can't behave in a selfless manner.

Answer 4

Well of course it benefits the giver... as well as the recipient. His Holiness is always joking about how "selfish" those "Bodhisattvas" are... because when you give something with pure intent and altruism, you gain so much for yourself simply by DEFAULT. It's not a conscious thing, but it can be if you want to make it as such. Simple cause and effect my friend.

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Answer 5

No. Even if I just get a feeling of doing right, I am getting something back. Like it or not, at a neurological basis, everything we do is a cost-benefit analyzed decision. We do it because the benefit warrants the cost.

Answer 6

I think that guy who jumped in front of a train and pinned that guy in New York who was have a seizure was doing a pretty selfless act.

Answer 7

No such thing. All things are done out of self-interest. You give a robber your money because you want to avoid the alternative. You help people because it makes you feel good.

Answer 8

i do believe in selfless acts. ex. giving away your last $20 bill to a homeless person begging on the street.
as jesus taught: what you do for the least of my brothers, ou do for me."

Answer 9

I don't think there is any purely selfless act.

Answer 10

I believe many Christians and Buddhists give selflessly and anonymously. I don't know how many of them take it off their taxes.