Why do we do anything? The true motivation behind human actions

[steersman]

It is my guess that those who believe we are not always selfish also believe that love is the highest form of emotion that is able to (ever) be experienced.

 

[Castilla]

Does every love expects reciprocity?
If so, then it is only a trade...

 

[Renge Ishyo]

It is my guess that those who believe we are not always selfish also believe that love is the highest form of emotion that is able to (ever) be experienced.

Emotions are chemical reactions. It is equally possible for someone to receive an "intense" pain as it is an "intense" joy (emotions that are equal in magnitude in their observable effect on the individual, I'm sure both of us have had examples of each somewhere in our lifetimes). My view is that it has to do with the strength of the reaction in the body at the time when the emotion is being produced. For example, when you first went on a roller coaster as a kid you might have had an "intense" experience because you were experiencing a new stimulus and information was pumping very rapidly to your brain. I bet the emotion wasn't the same the 100th time you went on the roller coaster (even though the ride "experience" remains constant).

Either way, I don't see the connection between the topics of emotional intensity and selfishness. They are two completely unrelated topics in my view. What I really want to know is that if the purpose of philosophy is to open everyone's mind, why do most philosophical arguments that I read try to generalize human behavior in a very rigid way?

 

[steersman]

Either way, I don't see the connection between the topics of emotional intensity and selfishness. They are two completely unrelated topics in my view.

They are not connected in regard to the question posed at the beginning of the thread - however, I believe it is necessary to question our own motivations because the question more or less shapes how we act. Who here is being completely honest with themselves? It's not that I don't think there are people who see love (or one of its subsidiary emotions) as the apotheosis of human experience, it's just that these people are rare, usually confined to religion, and don't normally visit PF.

 

[Renge Ishyo]

In terms of the importance of questioning one's motivations in order to become a better person, I am certainly in agreement with you (though I would stop short of calling it "necessary" as many people seem to survive without ever stopping to think about this sort of thing). Certainly this type of questioning is a form of "losing innocence" of the sort that we experience as we grow up. I remember when I was a teenager I thought I was in "love" with a girl who I knew in advance I could never marry. However, I was fooled by my crotch into thinking I was "madly in love" so I went ahead with it. In "reality" as I understand it to be at the moment, I was really young and horny and here was a girl who was interested in me and I was willing to ignore that I knew it wouldn't work to satisfy that (at the time) unquestioned impulse. Because of that decision both of us got attached. When the inevitable breakup occurred once we realized we could never marry, we both suffered. Now I understand what that particular "feeling" means more clearly, so when it triggers, I can keep myself better under control. Lesson learned.

It is true that we have inherent biological impulses that can cause us to make poor or selfish decisions at times if we just let them run rampant and don't learn what those impulses are and how to challenge them. The part where the conversation loses me is when people claim that ALL human actions are selfish. That sort of extremist thought is dangerous, and it serves as a sort of denial that we humans possesses the ability to modify our behavior and do unselfish things. Humans DO possesses the ability to make decisions that benefit themselves as well as others and the more control over our bodies we have the more ability we have to overcome "selfishness" should a situation arise where we need to act in an unselfish manner in order to avoid conflict (even if in doing so we have to go against what our "feelings" are telling us to do at a given moment).

 

[Rade]

I've noticed that in the discussion that has gone on in this string so far, much of the disagreement (or confusion) has resulted from semantic differences rather than from actual differences in opinion. Put simply, it is quite difficult to express ideas clearly if there are no clear and unique definitions for the terms used. To this end, I have tried to come up with (a start at) more concise (if somewhat arbitrary) definitions for some of the main terms used. These include:
1) selfish (adjective): striving to promote the welfare and advantage of ones-self, at the expense of one or more others. This may or may not include resorting to acts that are unethical, illegal or immoral. An act of this type requires some (overt or otherwise) component which is performed with the express purpose of disadvantaging one or more others. Theft, cheating and class discrimination are examples of this type of activity. [selfishness (noun), selfishly (adverb)]KM

I do not agree with this definition of "self-ish"-- what you define here is the "self-less" person -- the person that requires harming other people to advance self. Consider the word -- a self-ish person is concerned with self only, and a selfish person would never harm another person to advance self interest, except in the justified situation of self defense against action initiated by others. By definition, a truly selfish person lives by the moral code to never "initiate" harmful actions against other humans. All of this is made clear in the book by Ayn Rand, "The Virtue of Selfishness". And consider the many religions that place the highest moral virtue on selfish actions (such as being born again) that insure that one gets to live forever in a very nice place indeed after life on Earth --by whatever name that place is called. Such people are truly selfish in the correct sense of the concept as defined by Rand. And do we not look with a questionable eye at those who claim to never do anything for themself, always for the other ? I fear that few people are truly selfish as I have defined above, and hence the great evil we see in this world because so many humans have been incorrectly taught to equate advance of self (e.g., selfishness) with harming other people, as shown by the definition provided above by K. Mann.

 

[FluxCapacitator]

In my experience, I've found there are several groups of people: the selfless, the admittedly selfish, and the closet selfish.

Selfless people are a minority, they truly do everything they can to help others. These are not only the people who move to third world countries and sacrifice everything they have to help people who were born at a disadvantage, but people who ernestly spend most of their time thinking and acting for the welfare of others.

Closet selfish people is a little term I made up for people who deny how selfish they are. They'll often say how kind they are, they'll try hard to help other people, but when push comes to shove, they'd help themselves first. Rich people who make token donations to random charities while driving $70,000 cars fall into this section, as do people who do community service in order to appear like a selfless person. In short, they do a lot of good things for others while reserving the best for themselves so that they can keep a clean conscience. Sadly, a majority of people fall into this category.

Lastly, we have the selfish people, who do nothing unless it serves them in some way or form. It's also pretty clear cut, and there aren't too many of these in the world.

Obviously people can fall at various ends of the spectrum, but just about everyone is in one of those categories, with most in the middle one.

As for myself, I'm not in so much denial as to not consider myself as selfish, because most of what I do is just for me. However, I don't go out of my way to harm others, so I can sleep at night without any problems. Being selfish is what capitalism is all about, anyways. I'm good for the economy ;) .

 

[Reshma]

I don't think people are that selfish, but people are more cynical and I am not denying that I myself end up behaving like a cynic most of the time. I tend to assume the worst of human nature and motives; having a sneering disbelief in selflessness of others which is bad and I'm desparately trying to change. I guess cynicism is also a form of selfishness because I'm concerned chiefly or only with myself.

 

[Smurf]

I think the best way to describe the motive for human behavior is "Self Satisfaction", be it through possession of material wealth, or a warm fuzzy feeling after doing something 'nice' like donating to charity.