School Responsibilities

HoustonSaint68 said

Well, that's the old Philosophy 101 argument and, while it's not logically incorrect, I still view kindness and altruism as being those conscious acts to help fellow living beings on our shared blue marble, that don't inure to the physical benefit of ourselves or our family "tribe".

Yes, there are sporadic acts of selfless kindness elsewhere in the animal kingdom, but not with the frequency or complexity that humans do for others. That said, we kill other living beings in spectacularly complex ways, so there is that gapingly exposed flank in my argument.... :hihi:

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I'd argue that it's Philosophy 101 because it's more or less irrefutable since it is logically correct. :hihi:

But, I'll give you that people will sometimes act in kindness or for the benefit of others even if the benefit to them is very small. And, frankly, I'm not sure that the difference between true Altruism and kind of Altruism is all that important as the results are more or less the same.

Oddly, despite my belief that humans more or less always act in their own self-interest, I'm actually fairly optimistic that we as a species can improve. I just tend to think those improvements will generally result from selfish motives which I think is okay as I don't think motive necessarily determines morality or is a practically bad idea.