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RE[6]: Go Nokia :)
by Laurence on Tue 4th Sep 2012 15:13 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: Go Nokia :)"
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I feel like I'm in the minority here; I honestly believe that there is good in people beyond reactions to chemical responses. Maybe it's why I was never popular in my psychology classes in college.

Some people do it due to psychological reasoning such as:
* religious beliefs (good people go to heaven, reincarnation or karma),
* peer pressure (I want to look favourable in front of my peers)
* or even wider social convention (if I allow a stranger to make use of my phone in an emergency, then others might do the same in return; in essence we're talking applied karma)

The closest to a true selfless act is one that's performed out of empathy. However I'd still say that's falls under the social convention (ie when my wife has a migraine then I play "nurse" because I'd expect her to look after me if/when I should suffer from one too).

Well you know what they say about no good deed going unpunished right? It could happen to you... ;)

But that's exactly my point. You're now talking about selfish motives driving "selfless" acts.

When you think about it logically, true selflessness flies completely against our survival instinct. Now I'm not saying that we haven't evolved to become more than our instincts, however, deep down, there will be some level of rationalisation which keeps our instincts in line with our cerebral decisions.

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