I'm Not Sorry I'm Selfish
‘I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.’
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
The subject of altruism is a much debated topic and is commonly defined as helping another without any expectation of personal gain. Psychologists and philosophers alike have suggested that it is part of human nature to look out for one’s interests and behave in such ways that would benefit the self also. Does this necessarily make the act a selfish one? I don’t think so. In the same way that not everything which is not true is not necessarily a lie either - there is grey, as well as black and white.
In The Dawn by Friedrich Nietzsche, he maintains that emotions such as pity even are not in themselves selfless but are motivated by self-interest. This line of thinking is in accordance with that of Aristotle’s in Poetics, in which he says
‘for our pity is wakened by undeserved misfortune, and our fear by that of someone just like ourselves’.
Aristotle suspected that it is impossible to feel pity if one has absolutely nothing to lose and likewise by those who think themselves to be beyond all misfortune. The feeling of pity for Aristotle goes hand in hand with the feeling of fear, which in turn is experienced by the realisation of how similar we are to the person(s) facing misfortune.
IT IS THE REALISATION THAT WHAT HAS BEFALLEN THE UNFORTUNATE COULD JUST AS EASILY BEFALL US. Thus leading to the conclusion that even feelings of pity are, in themselves, selfish.
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