Altruism

“If you make yourself into a doormat, people will wipe their feet on you,” accommodated from Belizean Proverb. People who usually sacrifice their interests for others at all time, are often either limiting their own success by spending most of their time focusing on others, they never get their own work done, or they are abused by selfish people who view them as people who they can step on and take advantage of. These altruistic people can become the least successful when they cannot overcome…

Selfish or Selfless? A Paper on Altruistic Human Nature During Stressful Situations It can be heard everywhere, in the grumblings of adults lamenting over how each generation is more self-centered than the last, to each new online article presenting the bold headline that all humans are inherently bad at heart. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you grew up, you’ve heard the repeated mantra that humans are selfish. This idea has been ingrained into our society and media so thoroughly that…

Selfishness is the pursuit and maintenance of all “the values required for human survival” (Rand 31). In The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand uses the terms “selfishness” and “egotism” in distinctively different ways than most people commonly use those words. By redefining these terms, Rand is able to separate and classify her characters and people in general society, into what she considers to be two groups: first handers and second handers. The leading example of this, Howard Roark, is a struggling…

t’s easy to be selfish, taking everything for yourself and not letting anybody in. Anybody and everybody can be selfish, but I believe there are circumstances that can teach you to be selfless. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie was put into this circumstance where he needed to be selfless and couldn’t remain selfish. Elie was a very religious boy who had gotten taken by the Nazi’s during World War II and placed in concentration camps. During his time in the camps his father fell ill and…

An anonymous person one said “The most miserable people are those who care only about themselves, understand only their own troubles and see only their own perspective.” In other words if someone is selfish and does not care about other people’s feelings is someone who is usually miserable in their lives, if all they see is themselves and views only their point of view they are blinded by their character and personality. In the play Othello by Shakespeare the villain Iago suffers from wanting…

It is human nature to find out who they really are; during this process, people’s minds and behaviors are changing over time. In the current generation, the idea of individualism plays a dominant role, which leads the idea of selflessness and helping others almost gone. In the past, people would look out for others, but now, people only care about themselves. Being selflessness is the opposite side of being individualism; selflessness is also introduced as a way of realizing that everything is…

Providing incentives promotes others to support charity, benefitting both sides, and working toward the greater good of humanity. In fact, many companies, and even our own government, give some form of incentive when performing a charitable act, whether it be tax refunds, prizes, etc, after all, isn’t the overall goal to help others? As humans, we are constantly dwelling on the good we could do for ourselves, regardless of others opinions, feelings, or will of the people as a whole. Therefore…

“Who Really Cares: The surprising truth about compassionate conservation” surrounds itself about charity, which comes from the Latin word “caritas”, which means “affection.” I didn’t know that charity had so many in depth meanings until reading this book. Arthur Brooks associate his definition of charity to be monetary and non-monetary, and has to be consensual and beneficial. Nevertheless, I agree with his associations. I feel that charity does not have to solely about giving money, more of…

Counter-Argument: Contrary to my beliefs, some people still think that making sacrifices is totally selfless. One-way that people can think that sacrifice is selfless is by the sacrifier’s intent. If you do not hope for a return and you are truly trying to help the good of the community, and you believe this with your whole heart, then your selflessness is motivated by pure intent rather than a drive to gain status in your community. You can be a vessel of generosity and your feeling is for…

Indian education activist Sadhu Vaswani once stated, “If my love is without sacrifice, it is selfish. Such a love is barter, for there is exchange of love and devotion in return for something. It is conditional love.” Love and sacrifice can be seen as the most challenging traits to display, especially when showing shared humanity, or displaying kindness, sympathy and mercy towards others. In John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, he is able to demonstrate the human races’ capacity to share…