Is there such a thing as an unselfish act?

Question

Everything we do is for personal gain--every individual act can be looked at as selfish...even helping others helps ourselves because we feel good about it.

Answer 1

Yes

Answer 2

Yes, there are many unselfish acts. That is when you do something good or nice and you do it anonymously. It is when you put a $20 in the collection plate at church, when you scrape the ice and snow off a stranger's car, or when you give a person a few dollars in the grocery store because they don't have enough money. You do it because you want to and you don't tell anyone know what you did. No recognition. That is unselfish.

Answer 3

I understand what you're saying, but at the same time I kinda disagree. I helped a lady with her shopping cart, not to feel good about myself, or to post it on Y!A today, but because she needed assistance at the curb. Why can't someone do an unselfish act, without expecting a thank you? If you get one, great, and if you feel good about it, fine, but I think the initial response of just HELPING someone comes from a place of no expectations at all. It's just inherently the right thing to do.
(Plus, the selfish thing to do, would've been to just let her deal with it, while I made it across the crosswalk in time! ;-)

Answer 4

Yes, of course there is. We can see such unselfish acts in any good family, fathers and mothers raise their children with less self and do their best to protect them from danger. You can read from news reports on some heroic acts from brave people/officers/officials who did something unthinkable to save lives or serve the community due to their duty bondage/obligation.

Answer 5

I have never heard of an unselfish act, but im sure that some people in this world do thing and dont expect anything to come from it

Answer 6

The soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save the lives of others has committed an unselfish act. Parents sacrifice for their children all the time. You are far too cynical.

Answer 7

I think a good example of an unselfish act is a parents love towards their children. Mother Theresa is another good example!

Answer 8

Yes. Here it is. When you marry 8 men and 6 women together and let them do it with whoever and it gets real stupid, and they have kids and the kids do it with the adults and the kids do it with one another and with the grandparents and with their cat and dog and so on, then it is unselfish, because there is nothing left. It is just other-centered. As many others as you can find. This is pure genius.

Answer 9

Loving someone unconditionally is an unselfish act totally !!!

Answer 10

No. Phoebe on Friends tried to do an unselfish act and it wasn't possible, and everything that happened on Friends is true and we should all live our lives according to that show.

Answer 11

"...There is a fourth kind of brotherhood, the attitude of man toward humanity itself, the altruistic love of humankind and recognition of the fundamental human bond. Although this is unlimited it is nevertheless susceptible to change and destruction. Even from this universal fraternal bond the looked-for result does not appear. What is the looked-for result? Loving-kindness among all human creatures and a firm, indestructible brotherhood which includes all the divine possibilities and significances in humanity. Therefore it is evident that fraternity, love and kindness based upon family, nativity, race or an attitude of altruism are neither sufficient nor permanent since all of them are limited, restricted and liable to change and disruption. For in the family there is discord and alienation; among sons of the same fatherland strife and internecine warfare are witnessed; between those of a given race, hostility and hatred are frequent; and even among the altruists varying aspects of opinion and lack of unselfish devotion give little promise of permanent and indestructible unity among mankind.

Therefore the Lord of mankind has caused His holy divine Manifestations to come into the world. He has revealed His heavenly books in order to establish spiritual brotherhood, and through the power of the Holy Spirit has made it practicable for perfect fraternity to be realized among mankind. And when through the breaths of the Holy Spirit this perfect fraternity and agreement are established amongst men, this brotherhood and love being spiritual in character, this loving-kindness being heavenly, these constraining bonds being divine, a unity appears which is indissoluble, unchanging and never subject to transformation. It is ever the same and will forever remain the same. For example consider the foundation of the brotherhood laid by His Holiness Christ. Observe how that fraternity was conducive to unity and accord and how it brought various souls to a plane of uniform attainment where they were willing to sacrifice their lives for each other. They were content to renounce possessions and ready to joyously forfeit life itself. They lived together in such love and fellowship that even Galen, the famous Greek philosopher, who was not a Christian, in his work entitled "The Progress of the Nations" says that religious beliefs are greatly conducive to the foundation of real civilization. As a proof thereof he says, "A certain number of people contemporaneous with us are known as Christians. These enjoy the superlative degree of moral civilization. Each one of them is a great philosopher because they live together in the utmost love and good-fellowship. They sacrifice life for each other. They offer worldly possessions for each other. You can say of the Christian people that they are as one person. There is a bond amongst them that is indissoluble in character."

It is evident therefore that the foundation of real brotherhood, the cause of loving co-operation and reciprocity and the source of real kindness and unselfish devotion is none other than the breaths of the Holy Spirit. Without this influence and animus it is impossible. We may be able to realize some degrees of fraternity through other motives but these are limited associations and subject to change. When human brotherhood is founded upon the Holy Spirit, it is eternal, changeless, unlimited."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 79)