by Lucius Trae

Created on: May 04, 2010

Another word for a "selfless act" is an "altruistic act." These are actions where a person is motivated by the interests of others rather than their own personal interests. For example, a person may vacation in a country where tipping is customary. They have no plans of returning to the country in the future, and they have finished eating at a restaurant. Although they could refrain from tipping without harming themselves, they consider this inappropriate. They feel they have a duty to continue the custom, perhaps, or they feel for the servers that provided the meal. If you have objections to tipping, I don't mean to make you feel left out. It was just the first example that came to mind.

There are other cases of altruistic actions. The skeptic will claim, for instance, that the tip was simply habitual or socially engineered. The person doesn't actually care about anyone else. I disagree, but there are stronger examples in favor of selflessness. For instance, many parents instinctively protect their children. Whenever a vehicle comes to an abrupt stop, either of my parents will put their arm in front of me. I've never been in danger of flying out of a car, and this happens in cars with airbags. They are just naturally inclined to care about me, even if it means putting less effort into securing themselves. You'll notice that airlines have to remind parents to secure their oxygen masks first. This is because a parent will naturally, in most cases, try to help their child before themselves.

Furthermore, some philosophers have argued that the human self is an illusion. For instance, I am a person writing this article, but I will be doing something different in ten years. Maybe I'll be writing a different article or rock climbing. I don't have a deep connection to my own future. I don't get to experience. My future self might have completely different goals than I do today. If I met my future self, we might disagree about how our life should be led. When I do my homework, clean the house, work, etc, I put my own happiness aside for my future. The person I am today won't get that future, in a certain sense. Yet I work to ensure my future will be a good one. I've also found myself saying "Let my future self deal with it as a justification for avoiding things." The way we treat ourselves through time can be considered a form of selflessness.

There is little reason to believe selfless acts don't exist. Scientific evidence is now being accumulated that justifies this

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>