Do people always do good for just themselves?
I mean, when peoople help someone else, do they do it for the sake of just helping someone else, or is there always a personal gain in all good acts?
Yes
Side Score: 6
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No
Side Score: 11
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Your questions ask two different things, but I shall answer the one in the description: when peoople help someone else, do they do it for the sake of just helping someone else, or is there always a personal gain in all good acts? Personally, I maintain that there is no act that has absolutely no gain to the individual who commits the act. For example, someone who lives in Africa, helping the poor, is often considered to be 'selfless'. And yet, if you listen to why they do these things, they often say things like I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't help, or helping them just makes me so happy, or even the lofty I think that everyone deserves freshwater/food/education. Notice that no only are they justifying their actions through their own happiness, or their own opinions on how the world should be, but that it is very hard/impossible to justify it in any other way. Overall, I think that people do what's best for them, self interest. However, people as a whole are not entirely selfish, only caring about their own comfort, they care about other people. With some, this is but a slight though, others, it draws them to live their lives in austerity, trying to help as many as they can, while some break the trend and try and hurt people for perverse gains. But the basic premise that I make is that it is for self interest, but not necessarily in the conventional, capitalistic, view of the phrase, that people act. Side: Yes
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Having read this i don't think i could state my position on the topic without more or less rewording your own, so I'll add my support and add that i think that people often do good because they're afraid not to, which is self-serving like your examples, and also devalues the act considerably. Side: Yes
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True/pure altruism does not exist, in my opinion. While one can be consciously altruistic, I believe that any act of selflessness is done to fulfill subconscious, selfish desires. When one gives to the poor, or saves a kitten, or whatever bullshit, they never leave feeling worse about themselves for doing it. It may seem pessimistic, but I'm yet to be convinced that selflessness can truly exist. Side: Yes
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For an action to be truly selfless, that action must be carried out by someone who has lost their sense of self. Eliminating all thoughts of self is not easily done, or able to be done at all in my opinion. No one can completely lose their self, thus all actions are dictated to a degree (at varying quantitative levels) by SELF-interest and personal gain. - That said, I do not believe actions are performed SOLELY out of self-interest. There, again, are varying degrees of selflessness, and I believe some actions are partially if not mostly out of selflessness. Side: No
I always do good just for the Lord. It says always do everything for the Lord Jesus Christ. So I don't do it just for my self I do it for Jesus whenever I do good. Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" Side: No
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