Altruism

When many people think about the qualities that define a great friend, they think of someone who is trustworthy, kind, and humble. Ruth, however, is none of these things, unless she wants to be. But, to Kathy, she is a great friend. Ruth should not be thought of as a domineering control-freak, but rather a character who reveals the humanistic traits that the clones in this alternate reality have. The combination of Ruth’s personality traits, life experiences and completion at the end of the…

Throughout time, there has been a natural inclination to explore the unknown. From the Vikings of old, to the voyagers of Europe, to the settlers of America, and the explorers of the Arctic poles, there has always been a desire to go into the depths of the unknown and see what kind of amazing things lie just beyond our reach. However, this desire has not stopped with the edges of the Earth but has launched us into the very depths of space. From space exploration to landing on the moon our desire…

Humans actions take into account certain factors that influence what we do and why. The stance taken can be influenced based on an egoistic or altruistic point of view which I feel is a large determinant in what and why you do what you do. The difference versus the two is basically selfishness vs. selflessness. Egoism being the main idea here serves to be the motivation for ones actions. Now taking into consideration that chapter 3 mentions a few versions of egoism such as psychological egoism…

While humans are very powerful, smart species, we are very selfish and often just look out for ourselves. Although humans have a pretty good reputation the sad truth is, we are very selfish, and when push comes to shove take care of themselves rather than others. In the famous trolley situation with the lever and five people, I would pull the lever because I couldn’t see the 5 people die and that seemed to be the best answer for me. In the second situation I wouldn’t push the person because one…

Extrinsic Rewards Undermining Altruistic Tendencies in 20-Month Olds This is an experimental study about how the influence of rewards can affect how a child with a certain task. Children were randomly selected to one of three conditions in either the treatment phase or the test phase. The three conditions consist of: material reward, praise, and neutral reward. (Warneken & Tomasello, 2008) The participants that were selected came from German speaking families from a medium sized urban…

Selfishness. It’s a terrible word isn’t it? People would frown when they hear it. Nobody wants to be accused. We were taught from childhood that if you want to be good, you have to be altruistic. Thus, everyone in here may believe that selfishness is the epidemy of evilness. But is it? Selfishness is a bad word in many people’s books as it’s supposedly personified by someone who victimizes others, but let’s pause and challenge that view. The exact meaning of the word “selfishness” is to be…

Now comes the time to reveal the truth of why people choose to help others. People decide to help others due to our instinctual nature as social creatures who want our own species to survive and thrive we want to help others because we know that they are similar to ourselves. For instance, in the movie, How to Train your Dragon, Hiccup, the main character, works together with his dragon, Toothless, to stop an evil dragon named Red Death which terrorizes other dragons and forces them to attack…

The 23andMe mission is to help people access, understand, and benefit from the human genome (“Our Mission,” n.d.). However, the Food and Drug Administration’s concerns regarding our at-home genetic reports could jeopardize the company’s ability to fulfill this mission. There are limited options in resolving this matter; we can meet regulatory standards and earn FDA approval, completely abandon the at-home reports and seek another way to fulfill the 23andMe mission, or continue to provide these…

PA is the seed of the innate light, which has the effect of shining the light throughout the Dharmadattu. This light also means wisdom, therefore, when we cultivate the seed syllable PA, the result is the cultivators will manifest the wisdom that penetrates all phenomena in the universe. Let us regularly visualize the seed of light PA to develop the wisdom light so that we will have a more comprehensive worldview and a more expansive and compassionate heart. For example, when we are selfish…

Though most human actions and desires are undeniably formed in the protection or furtherance of the agent 's personal interest, to say this constitutes the entirety of human interaction would discount the altruistic capabilities of empathetic thought, and consequent action, seen in human beings. In this paper, I will directly respond to ethical egoist , both strategic and metaphysical, arguments in defense of cooperative action being rooted in self-interest. I will begin with a strategic ethical…