Us humans are motivated by our own needs, wants and desires. Can we do things purely for the sake of a third party?
When we do a good deed, why are we doing it? Is it possible to do something for a purpose unrelated to oneself?
If I help an old lady across the street, am I doing it for the old lady? Or am I doing it so I will feel good afterwards because I did a nice deed?
Adam Smith (as told in his book, The Wealth of Nations) believed that in an economy, when humans follow their own interests, everyone else benefits (that's where the whole "invisible hand" theory comes into play). Does that apply to everything else in life?
Can humans do things against their own interests? I'm not so sure. It may be built into our evolutionary DNA to act selfish for survival tactics. That would mean acting selflessly would be going against human nature....
Perhaps it is selfish to act selflessly; the selfless action just manifested in a selfish biology.
So a few days ago I was in Wallgreens and I overheard a man with a very heavy accent asking people where the "French cologne" was. I approached the man and directed him to the cosmetics and perfume department; no employee was stationed there so I asked a cashier if she could get someone to help this man out. I waited just to make sure someone was coming. After 15 minutes and a few more requests from the cashier, someone finally came. Turns out there they had no French cologne, and this man was adamant on only having French-made cologne/perfume. I asked him "Why only French?" He replied that he was from Haiti, and he wanted to remember his French-cultured childhood. (I presume that the recent earthquake may have been the impetus for the visit to the store.)
So as the man and I both parted ways, I felt sad that this man was unable to get his product. I searched on my phone web-browser for a place where I could find French cosmetics. I found an appropriate store, and then I ran out of Wallgreens, found the man about 20 feet away from the entrance, approached him and let him know the phone number of the store and where it was located.
And that was that. And you know what? I felt really good about myself after doing that deed.
----Ok, know you may be wondering why I just told you that whole story. As I approached the man at first, was I really consciously saying "I will help him so I will feel good after"? I do not believe so.
But was it subconscious? Possibly...
Someone told me: religion may be the only thing that we do for selfless reasons. Interesting point, yet if one holds that religion itself is for selfish reasons (to prevent the feeling of insecurity...and I will hopefully have a post on that concept and religion in the coming days) than this does not hold true.
But I see a silver lining (and a big one at that) in this very dim outlook on human nature.
Perhaps it is in our DNA to be selfless, and humans, by nature, desire to do selfless acts.
Why? maybe because when someone does a selfless act, they feel that they become part of something greater than the cells that currently comprise their body - they become something bigger, something greater.
-Now isn't that selfish also? (As it is masking up certain insecurities of feeling not important.) Possibly. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Because that would mean that humans, by nature, have the desire to be selfless.
