Altruistic State of Mind
Is ultimate altruism achievable to the average person as they go through their everyday lives? Altruism is “the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others” (dictionary.com). Altruism can be perceived by people differently make it seem like it is something we could incorporate into our daily lives. The truth is that altruism to some people can be as simple as helping one another move houses. That is an altruistic characteristic. That does not mean that we will always do things and expect nothing in return. Always doing things for others and being aware of what those around you need is ultimate altruism. Ultimate altruism cannot be achieved because our basic human nature will …show more content…
This default setting is our selfish ways that get us through our daily life. Wallace states that it is “hard-wired into our boards at birth” but is “a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting” (Wallace). He goes on to explain the different ways that we can think about others and their difficulties as we go through our days to break out of this default setting. The truth is that there is no possible way for us to choose how we think every second of everyday. We often think subjectively, which is thinking based on personal feelings and emotions. That does not mean that we cannot go through making small changes. The split second that we stopped thinking about our actions the selfish instinct has returned. If it is a choice to think this way as Wallace states then that is fair enough. However, in the end we still will not have completely reset our default setting; is just our basic human nature to not think about these things daily. It often comes with the idea of survival. Surviving is the way of life and in order to do that we have to put ourselves before others. There is nothing wrong with being selfish. Everyone is selfish ton some extent in their own ways. It becomes this circular argument of what is altruism, our default setting and all the reasons we cannot change
Is ultimate altruism achievable to the average person as they go through their everyday lives? Altruism is “the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others” (dictionary.com). Altruism can be perceived by people differently make it seem like it is something we could incorporate into our daily lives. The truth is that altruism to some people can be as simple as helping one another move houses. That is an altruistic characteristic. That does not mean that we will always do things and expect nothing in return. Always doing things for others and being aware of what those around you need is ultimate altruism. Ultimate altruism cannot be achieved because our basic human nature will …show more content…
This default setting is our selfish ways that get us through our daily life. Wallace states that it is “hard-wired into our boards at birth” but is “a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting” (Wallace). He goes on to explain the different ways that we can think about others and their difficulties as we go through our days to break out of this default setting. The truth is that there is no possible way for us to choose how we think every second of everyday. We often think subjectively, which is thinking based on personal feelings and emotions. That does not mean that we cannot go through making small changes. The split second that we stopped thinking about our actions the selfish instinct has returned. If it is a choice to think this way as Wallace states then that is fair enough. However, in the end we still will not have completely reset our default setting; is just our basic human nature to not think about these things daily. It often comes with the idea of survival. Surviving is the way of life and in order to do that we have to put ourselves before others. There is nothing wrong with being selfish. Everyone is selfish ton some extent in their own ways. It becomes this circular argument of what is altruism, our default setting and all the reasons we cannot change