Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
If you spend a lot of energy to save a loved one, it is because YOU would feel sad if he/she died.
That most of us feel good when we're kind...at the very least, this behavior and emotion set have societal survival advantages.
Re: Selfless
Originally posted by SIDIOUS 66I haven't read any of the other posts but will give my opinion to it.
Can anyone give an example of an act that has no selfish motives? This would be a selfless act.
Keeping your mouth shut and suffering in silence knowing that you did the good deed or the good will or set in motion the reaction that caused something that was possitive.
BUT maybe doing something that makes you feel good is a form of being selfish???
Originally posted by Deja~vuJust read my first one. 😛
I haven't read any of the other posts but will give my opinion to it.
BUT maybe doing something that makes you feel good is a form of being selfish???If your main motivation is to feel good, then yes. Helping another person was just the means to an emotional ends.
If your main motivation was to help someone, then no. The good feeling was a fringe benefit.
Originally posted by HewhoknowsallMy wanting is secondary, a means to the ends of saving the other person. Being selfish is the opposite: your act of saving another's life is now the means to the ends of personal satisfaction.
Yeah but technically you wanted to help that person, YOU did, you are trying to satisfy your want. 😕
In truth, no human action is literally selfless, since a self, a person, is always involved. But that doesn't mean every act is selfish.
I think doing something for someone knowing that they would appreciate it or needs it is selfless. Even a kind word to them. Just to say something uplifting. Doing extra that wasn't expected as they would say. Walking the extra mile and they don't know you did it in some cases.
Making people feel good just for the fact that you like to make people feel good about their lives.
but it has to be spur of the moment...that to me makes it selfless..no time to think you just do it...a child about to be hit by a bus and you push them out of the way and get smushed without even thinking...bad neighborhood and there is a driveby shooting you shield the person closest to you without thinking...down to the last shot of booze and you offer it up to your buddy without thinking now thats really selfless..lol
Originally posted by inimalistUnconditional love generally. When we collectively love everything else, we will be selfless.
what research into unconditional love specifically?
It'd probably work better when you realise our entire lives are interdependent on everything else in existence. We can't live without plants, oxygen, or other people. So, it's critical to look after those things.