Can you think of a selfless deed?

Question

I mean when you do something for someone and you get absoloutley nothing out of it at all, not even a good feeling? I don't think there is one, but if someone tells me a truly selfless act, i maybe swayed lol...

Answer 1

I gave you a star.
That's pretty selfless.

Answer 2

No there are no selfless deeds. Every action, being acted upon by the agent, produces some positive benefit. Some mental benefit, physical benefit, religious beneift or psychological benefit. When analysing "selfless" deeds, I suppose it needs to be measured how much some act benefits one person at the expense of the other, and if it can be said to massively benefit one at the expanse of the other, considering their initial distribution of resources, then an act could be said to be aggregatedly a selfless act, even though there is some measure of selfish benefit. This leads to problems of measurability, and incommensurability, i.e. different benefits cannot be measured, and also how can we measure even one person's benefit without getting inside their haed, which is still impossible. Because selfless deeds are only measurable by the person themselves in their own justifications and consciously honest desires of the outcome, then we cannot know except about our own deeds. But, people also do not know themselves fully. We are conscious and subconscious beings, and so we cannot say with certainty whether our selfless motivations for an action are not in fact guided by deeper egotistical motivations. Overall though, even without these last qualifications, there is always some benefit to the actor, no matter if someone else beneifts more. Hence, there is no such thing as a selfless deed. However, this is a technicality, and should not give you a justification for not acting "selflessly". Differences in relative beneifts are substantial, so in effect, there are such things thaqt can be considered to be approximate to "selfless" deeds, even if in detail, there are not.

Answer 3

That's simple, I do alot of them.Example: I'll open and hold a door for an elderly person who is going into post office, store,etc. I'll bend down to pick up something (and return it) that someone has dropped without realising it. Somebody gives me back the wrong change (too much money) when I pay for something, I'll tell them, so they don't turn up short on the till and have the money deducted from their paycheck as a result of their mistake. I'll tip people sometimes even though the service was not that great, just becuse I know that the hospitality industry is usually not that great a paying industry to work in. I thank people when they should be thanked.I will help a complete stranger if I feel they are in need of it.

Answer 4

You cannot do a selfless deed if you are doing it to do a selfless deed. The only selfless deed i can think of is one where you give yourself pain to give them happiness. But without doing it to make it a selfless deed.

Like giving your life for someone.

Answer 5

There are actually loads of them. The point is not whether you get any positive feelings as a result of your act but whether getting that feeling was the prime motivation for doing it.

For example, after saving a granny from the path of an oncoming car you might have a nice feeling but your prime motivation for saving the granny wasn't to get that feeling ie your act was fundamentally altruistic - that you got a nice feeling was just a bonus.

Answer 6

No, I can not for we are selfish by nature, and it is virtually impossible for one human to do something for another creature without getting some personal gain, like the satisfaction of having done a favour for another person. Self gratification is the very least of a motive, otherwise, it was unintended or an accident that someone gained from a deed of our own.

Answer 7

heres one, give money to a charity who distributes food to starving people and children in this world. we take for granted we have access to food 24/7. we also know that there are starving children in the world who cannot help themselves and have no chance without the charity of someone with money, yet while knowing this, we still choose to obtain as many luxeries as possible, and do nothing for these people. so donate to them, you will not physically see anyone eating, therefore getting no real sensation of satisfaction for your deed, all youll see is a bill. however in reality, you have made somewhat of a difference.

Answer 8

Sacrificing your life for someone with having too much time to think about it - no time even to feel good about it - like pushing someone out of the path of a train and dying yourself. Or, dying for an ungrateful person(s), so that if there're any feelings, they will not even be nice ones. Yet you still do it.
Maybe that's how it was with Jesus who purported died for ungrateful sinners who taunted him even as he was dying.

Answer 9

Watching an infomercial at 2:00 in the morning. I get absolutely nothing from that.

Answer 10

doing something for someone always makes you feel good. if as you say, feeling good means you are getting something out of it, then no, there is no such things as completely selfless deed.

Answer 11

There are no selfless deads. We always get something out of what we do or who we are.