Quick Thoughts on Altruism
I have also been thinking about our discussion of altruism and whether or not it exists. I do agree that we may be born with a sense of altruism, but by the time we grow old enough to express ourselves, there isn't much left. The discussion on altruism is very complicated, but it can be broken down by understanding the limits of altruism and what is defined to be selflessness. To actually form some opinion on this argument, I'd like to assert that there is no such thing as pure and unadulterated altruism. Thinking about it at this extreme, there really can't be any human that hasn't done something for their own benefit. If you twist it around enough, even Jesus can be seen to have stepped over the line of pure altruism at some point, although he is as close to altruism as anyone gets. So I'd like to set a limit to altruism. A person can never fully comply to the terms of altruism, but sometimes, a rare person steps up and does something selflessly.
I've been thinking about examples of altruism in modern society long and hard. It is difficult to come up with them, but I believe that people who truly believe in helping the environment are altruistic. Think about it; what do they get from planting a tree? Relating to the article we read tonight, it could just be for the preservation of our species. Although one could also argue that Jesus died on the cross for the preservation of our species.
Just my jumbled thinking. I'm sure there are tons of fallacies in my logic.