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mementoTeHominemEsse t1_iymxmd1 wrote

Reply to comment by draliene in Selflessness and altruistic deeds are often signs of weakness or a lack of belief in one’s self and one’s own goals | Guy Elgat explores Nietzsche’s critique of selflessness by IAI_Admin

>You do go through more amount of pain/suffering/labour being altruistic anyways.

I'd argue that while in the long term this is true, in the short term it's often actually the easier choice, and chasing instant gratification is a sign of weakness. An example may be giving money to a beggar, even though you know it will likely go to waste. It's easier to give him the money than just walk past him. However, long term, we might know we need the money ourselves, and even if we didn't, giving it to charity would have been the better cause.

Alternatively, we might be seeking the approval of others. Or perhaps, because we lack actual power, we try place ourselves above others in an imaginary moral hierarchy by telling ourselves we're better people than them because we're more altruistic.

That isn't to say you should completely abandon altruism, or that all, or even most altruism stems from weakness, but we should at least be more aware of what is really driving us. Because altruism is praised by society, we often let our true motives for altruistic action unchecked.

Sorry for being such an edgelord btw, lol.

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draliene t1_iyn3lva wrote

But then it isn’t an act of altruism or selflessness anymore, is it? You are not BEING selfless, you are preforming it.

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mementoTeHominemEsse t1_iyn4j4o wrote

Selflessness in the perfect philosophical sense your conceptualizing it doesn't exist. Everything we do has a selfish motive.

Selflessness however in the sense the article is talking about and we
talk about in day to day life is simply acting in a way that grants you
no non-moral benefits. If someone gives a beggar money an upon being asked why claim they simply wanted to see the beggar smile, we will still call that selflessness. That's simply the way the word has been embedded in our language.

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