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SinsidiousNME t1_j1y2rfo wrote

Reply to comment by anonymousbabydragon in /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | December 26, 2022 by BernardJOrtcutt

To be altruistic is to be intentional, no matter what altruistic action your doing you still have motivation. So selfishness is purely an opinion of other people as everyone is motivated internally and everyone carry’s out actions because they chose to. Selfish- lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.

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anonymousbabydragon t1_j2b67cl wrote

I guess where I sort of have issues with isn’t that someone’s doing something selfless. I think that’s great it’s more that I don’t believe in a mindset that means trying to never think of yourself. It goes back to the individual being part of a group part I mentioned earlier. If you never learn what you want and what makes you motivated I think you will fail at being someone that has the foundation and confidence to succeed within a group. I don’t think the self is evil. I think most of us are born good and with good intentions for our community. We are instead taught how to act and feel. In saying we need to forget ourselves we’re implying that we are somehow bad or wrong. That is not true. We are good and if we are believed in by ourselves we can arguably accomplish more altruistic things then someone who thinks it’s necessary to forget oneself. Why can’t we be both caring about others and ourselves? Why do we have to distinguish one as being more worthy of our love and attention?

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SinsidiousNME t1_j2c0p56 wrote

I don’t disagree with the point about distinguishing between one being more worth of love but individuality is really only existent because of group thought. Everything you have ever learned was a linguistic depiction of reality or events told by someone else. There is one human knowledge that is constantly growing that you can choose to learn from and eventually build up on if you focus on a field of study and make some discovery. I believe in subjective morality and that it is ultimately learned unless genetic conditions. Although it’s utterly impossible to have a definitive answer on morality at all in my opinion

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