We are all basically selfish.

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yuniu
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Post by yuniu »

Taking care of ourselves should be the priority lesson to everyone. If a person has no capability to take care of himself, how can we believe he is competent to balance his own interest with others. I believe a happy man delivers happiness to the neighborhood. A sad man spread pollution to the around.
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Arale
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Post by Arale »

All people are selfish. It is true. The difference is how selfish you are. Controlling your selfisfness is also an important principle to keep you from evils of life. I don't think people could absolutely rule it out so controlling it at the lowest level is really a great success.

_Arale_
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Post by crystalfrogw »

we must admit human beings are selfish.....but when we realize it we sholud improve ourselves all the time.After all we are not saints........
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Post by intboy »

Selfish is not exactly bad,as we must meet ourself needs firstly,then we can help others.
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Post by kathymimi »

well, we are selfish in nature, but it doesn't mean this selfish will hurt others. unless our selfish hurts others, we should accept this personality.
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Seafarer
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Post by Seafarer »

I had a weird example in my mind about this selfishness issue, but had never found the oppurtunity to post it, so thanks for this topic :P
I sometimes think that what if my boyfriend dies in an earthquake or any accident.Of course this means i will lose him but the person who is going to suffer cause of it , is ME! For that reason i never want this to happen.I guess this is a good example of my selfishness :roll:
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Post by Bambang »

First of all, I would like to say that we are basically selfish. That’s true. But it's still in a comma not a period. Besides selfish creatures, we are also unselfish creatures. We are also helpful. We are the best creation that God has ever made. We are balanced creatures, full of positive and negative sides. That makes us better than other creatures in this universe.

God created angels with full of kindness and devil with full of badness. My point is as balanced creatures, we should be smart in managing ourselves. All we have to do is to minimize the negative natures and optimize or maximize the positive natures. So let's minimize our selfishness.
vivian_1987 wrote:If selfishness is defined thinking mainly about one’s own personal pleasure or profit without thinking about other people. Then I do not believe that all humans are selfish. I believe that many people are very concerned about others and love is present in this world. A minority of people may be selfish but I believe the majority of people are loving. Sometimes we may resort to thinking only about ourselves when we have been hurt and we resort to self-protection. We live in a world full of different people where cooperation is vital. Therefore, we must think about others as well as ourselves
I hope and believe that you are one of those who can be categorized as a smart person at maximizing the positive natures. I really appreciate you point of view my friend.
judy2004 wrote: …If you can not meet your demand, how can you give your food or money away to the poor? Those who can help the poor out must have earned surplus…
My friend, you don’t need to be rich to be able to give something to the poor. There are many many examples in this world when poor people can give something to the poorer ones. Giving something to someone is not about the wealth. It’s about heart and willingness. Sorry my friend, I didn’t mean to judge that you don’t have heart to do good deeds. I really hope that you are not in that category. Once again, please accept my apology if I am wrong.

Finally, my point is selfishness can be minimized if we have willingness to do that.
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Post by nightwish »

Ok. I'll start from me, as I see myself I'm not a selfish person, but sometimes the human instinct plays a good part in our life and ecpecially when it's for our interests.
I'm not the best in this world, and I never prefered myself as the good person and the best one, I help all the people who need a help, I give the people who I really love more than I can give.

so all i wanna say that, it all depends on us to be selfish or not :!:
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Post by Bambang »

nightwish wrote:...so all i wanna say that, it all depends on us to be selfish or not :!:
Then choose not to be selfish my dear friend.
I hope and believe you will, won't you?
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Post by nightwish »

I'm not selfish dear! and thats for sure!
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Bambang
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Post by Bambang »

Dear nightwish

I believe you are not.

Keep your unselfishness dear.

Psycologically speaking, it's not good for our mental health to be selfish.
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TearHere
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Post by TearHere »

Yes, we are basically selfish. It's human nature. I won't claim that i'm not "selfish" because I become one at times. To me, it's my relationships with people that makes me control my selfishness. It's one of the few things I really appreciate- how love can actually overcome selfishness.

I mean, okay one can be selfish, but to be the "recipient" of the selfishness of other people is just mean. So in as much as I don't want people to be selfish to me, I also refrain from being selfish. :wink:
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Bambang
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Post by Bambang »

TearHere wrote:Yes, we are basically selfish. It's human nature.:wink:
Supernaturally speaking, you are selfish my dear.

So, all you have to do is to tear up any selfishness in your deepest heart.

Supernaturally speaking, you can do it honey.
You can.
Just do it, then you'll see the result.
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YUppy..Selfish

Post by baobao »

TalkingPoint wrote:We are all basically selfish.

selfish (adjective) = thinking mainly about one’s own personal pleasure or profit without thinking about other people
Yes,indeed.Our basic instinct is absolutely selfish.According to what roman proverb by plautus in which then used by Thomas Hobbes:"Homo Homini Lupus"(Man is a wolf to man).Most of people must own desire to have more of personal pleasure or profit in order to satisfy their ego.For example,War was happened because the selfish ego that want to have more and more.Note:Not everypeople Selfish..
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Bambang
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Re: YUppy..Selfish

Post by Bambang »

baobao wrote: ...Homo Homini Lupus"(Man is a wolf to man).
Disagree :!:
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With respectfully

Post by baobao »

Bambang i,m not claiming that everypeople are homo homini lupus.But our basical instinct is selfish isn't it?For example,corruption is one of example.Corruption is on behalf our self-interest,but the impact of it harm people or institution whom being corrupt.Our basical instinct is homo homini lupus which it can be change.If there are not(type homo homini lupus), is this world is so perfect by ignoring the fact type of homo homini lupus is exist.I'm sorry if i'm wrong,but it is my point of view.Thank you
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Bambang
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Look at babies.

Post by Bambang »

Dear Baobao,

All people are basically nice. Look at babies when they were just born. Cute huh :!:

Environment makes people become wolves.

Sorry my dear, your favorite philosophers were wrong.
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Respectfully

Post by baobao »

yes..first of all,i agree to say that babies is innocent and cute but unfortunately the proverbs point to man not babies.Second that environment is created by people too,so i think is so hypocrite to blame environment.That i believe basically we are selfish which can be change.And this proverbs appropriate to this topic that people basically is selfish.And one more to judge that proverbs right or wrong is not wise.You have no right to say the philosophers wrong.If all people agree with you that it's wrong it will be completely remove from proverbs list.People have their own point of view,i respect everypeople point of view.I won't say it wrong because,i'm not so superior smart to judge it wrong.Thank You
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Be a man

Post by Bambang »

baobao wrote:Yes..first of all, I agree to say that babies is innocent and cute but unfortunately the proverbs point to man not babies.
My dear, the baby is man. They are not animals.
The philosophers pointed at all men. "Men" here means men, women, boys, girls, included babies.
Baobao wrote:Second that environment is created by people too, so I think is so hypocrite to blame environment.
The question is :
are you a product of an environment or a heredity.
Baobao wrote:That I believe basically we are selfish which can be change.
We're basically nice and innocent. Just keep it. Don't change it. Don't be a wolf. I don't wanna be a wolf. Your philosophers might have wanted to.
Baobao wrote:People have their own point of view, I respect everypeople point of view.
You got it. You got it, my dear. Everybody has their own point of view, included you and me. So, in my opinion your philosophers were wrong. That's my opinion, and you should respect it.
Baobao wrote:I won't say it wrong because, I'm not so superior smart to judge it wrong.Thank You
Are you suffering from a mental disorder called inferiority complex?
C'mon, wake up :!:
Be confident :!:
Criticize everything you consider wrong :!:
Don't be a buffalo :!:

You should have known that some philosophers are not better than you. In some ways, you might be better that your admired philosophers. Don't you know that some philosophers committed suicide. They were hopeless. Do you want to copy or follow them?

Are they better?

Don't commit suicide my dear :!:

This life is so beautiful to enjoy.
There a lot of beautiful things in this world.
There are a lot of things to enjoy rather than committing suicide.

Be a man instead of a copycat.
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Respectfully

Post by baobao »

You mean be yourself...Ohh..I got your idea..About right or wrong..I want to ask you something.I have read a book that said a debate can't judge it right or wrong,because there are always pro and contra right.Then when you say that homo homini lupus wrong isn't that you judge..haha...suicide..quite funny..By the way what is inferiority complex?You are an indonesian right?how old are you?Because me too i'm from jakarta too..nice to meet you my friend^^
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Post by Moody »

By nature we humans are all animals and selfish, but by nurture we can be different and WE ARE!! Our environmental factors influence the behavior and traits of our life.
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Post by iamvitaly »

I think that it's true! It's rule of ourtimes. We can't live without this strain. But degree of this is different for others...
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Re: Respectfully

Post by Bambang »

baobao wrote:I have read a book that said a debate can't judge it right or wrong,because there are always pro and contra right.
Nothing's wrong with debate. The most important thing is how we react to a debate properly. A debate can sharpen our understanding about something.


Nice to meet you too my fellow Indonesian.
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himizi
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Post by himizi »

I can't agree with you.
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hedwig14
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Post by hedwig14 »

i believe we are. Now, those people who'd react hard on this, ponder: For once in your life, didn't you think of saving your own neck before others.
It's human nature. We people tend to think of ourselves first before we try to do something good to others.
But human as we are, there are still those times we we become selfless and think of others. I hope there are still people who are like that. I can't guarantee myself all te time. ^__^
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Post by Alfabeto »

When people say that "we're all basically selfish" they are equivocating, or confusing, different meanings of the word "selfish". Of course we are all concerned with our own survival, but man is a very weak animal on his/her own. We all depend on other people. So there is a clear social dimension to all of us. We would not exist as individuals, as persons, without a group or a society. And social life requires that we look after the interests of other people too and not just ourselves. So we're basically unselfish too. If you treated other people like ~ all the time, they would treat you badly too, and eventually you would die in total isolation.
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by keenlearner »

Hi there,

I think it is true but we should find a balabce between ourselves and others. indeed, I am trying to be good with others and deal with them as the same way that I eccept them to do in return...We are really selfish but we can overcome it....
:lol:
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by herione »



becuase we just thinking about our self and after the other



so we are selfish
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by sweethuman »

I agree with you
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ArnauEstanyol
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by ArnauEstanyol »

Yes. We are selfish in essence. I think that the basis of our civilization is sustained by two main columns: selfishness and sex.
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by Elisa »

Yes, I think we are basically selfish but the question is :" how much selfish are you"?

There are people totally selfish and other reasonably selfish.

I think to be a reasonably one.
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Re: We are all basically selfish.

Post by hilaryprk »

Human beings are naturally animals, selfish is a human concept. So the technical answer to your question is yes we are naturally selfish.
But,its really about the survival instinct, all animals are selfish when it comes to survival, procreation and nurture are close to it in dominance of instinct though, that's why most humans and animals protect their young fiercely and why we are all driven to have sex frequently.

So, I believe the hardest thing for humans to overcome is pride and selfishness.
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