As long as it is doesn’t put me in mortal danger, I always help others when I can. If a couple of mean-looking bikers were stranded,I’d keep on driving…mostly because I’m female, and we have to be a little more cautious than males.
However, if I have gone out of my way to help someone, and they see it as a opportunity to take advantage of what they assume is a wholly altruistic nature, I kick them to the curb. I help when I can, but I have never forgotten the old addage, “The nicer you are to a pig, the more it shits on your porch.”
Maybe Karma has some merit…I have always tried to help others, and others always seem to be willing to help me when I need it.
Why does anyone have a motivation to help others? Where I am going with this has already been pointed out by others here.
First off you have to accept the theory of evolution through natural selection for the following explanation to make any sense.
A single human being is not a complete organism. Only a group of human beings, like a pack or a tribe, is a complete organism. Cooperation is necessary for human survival. As a life form the human being did not flourish as disparate rugged individualists. We succeeded as tribes. Only as a social animal did we succeed for tens of thousands of years. A human organism is fine tuned for living in a tribe. Reciprocity is a significant keystone in human social organization. I do a favor for you today and you do a favor for me later. Combined this with a cheater detector that allows us to remember those people who won’t do a favor for you tomorrow and you have a fair explanation of why we have an inclination to help others.
Now outside of the small group of people that would traditionally make up a tribe there is no direct favor repayment. So the return on the investment is not perfect. Yet the experience of satisfaction that one has when one does a favor for another is partial repayment for the effort.
Then beyond basic biology there is the additional matter of training. A person can be trained to be more benevolent to others than he or she might be inclined to be naturally. Being benevolent is not just a talent it is a skill.
Being kind to others can change the center of a person’s sense of self. It need not be limited to one organism. “I†can be bigger than my body and my ego.
you’re not crazy. there’s a good reason you do things like that. the analytical mind is petty ignorant, but sanity shines through despite that. it’d be a shame to suppress wisdom on account of concluding you’re crazy or socially conditioned or somesuch. it’s not all about ‘personal gain’. where are we when everyone is take, take, take? but i’m actually talking about more than the golden rule, here. the keyword is WE. as in WE ARE ALL ONE.
There is possibly another component to helping others, but it’s warm and fuzzy and below our macho posturing. It’s a rarely used word these days, but the word is empathy. The capacity to see others (and their situations) as we see ourselves. The decision to pull over and help change a tire was made in a nanosecond - and it was empathy that made the decision. All the rationalization after the fact is just that - rationalization.
You don’t have to help anybody. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, you are bound by nothing but the laws of nature. I help people because I understand that I am them, I understand the oneness of existence and though I am helpful by nature I have grown increasingly more compassionate towards everything around me when it hit me that I am everything around me. If I ever refuse to help, well I must be honest sometimes it is due to shere laziness, and in some cases it is due to personal paranoia and caution which I have always been very alert about. It’s tough to rewire that brain up there but I’m working at it.
No appreciable reward in death - only if in doing so you save a greater number of humans whom you can be fairly sure you share genes with.
As I said - those who bear the altrusitic predisposer gene hide their identities - and so cannot overtly recognize eachother… I suppose if the stiuation is critical enough, and the altruist’s fight/flight system is in full swing - perhaps the altruistic urge to stay and do something to help overwelms the run off and save yourself reflex. So the stranger gets saved and the altruist pops his cork.
It goes sucker - cheater - grudger.
suckers help everyone, regardless of history. cheaters receive help - but help no-one in return. grudgers help eveyone - but remember and do not re-help those who did not help them in return.
Suckers flourish alone, but if a single cheater geneotype invades - quickly succumb to extinction.
Cheaters flourish, until the population of suckers falls to a point where a cheater is unlikely to meet a sucker.
Grudgers work best with suckers, but if a cheater invades, rides out the storm whilst the suckers die out and the cheaters fail.
the ESS (evolutionary stable strategy) is something like a majority of grudgers, a few isolated cheaters and enough suckers to support the cheaters existing. I forget the exact ratio.
Anyway - as a last note:
Who cares wether the motivating forces behind altruism are selfish or not…?
I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.
I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.
I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.
I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.
I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.
I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.
I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesmally small, is not exactly zero.
If at first I don’t succeed, there is always next year.
I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.
I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.
I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.
I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan.
I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.
I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator’s Society) if they ever get it organized.
No. I expect nothing when I help people, but if it becomes a situation where I’m turned into a door mat or am being taken advantage of…I stop helping.
I ask others for help very rarely, but when I do, I find that most people I know to be more than willing to lend me assistance.This is what I meant by Karma… I never expect people that I have helped to return the favour and I don’t keep tabs. I’ve just noticed that other people,who are in no way related to people I have helped, seem willing to help me if I need it.
Well the basic underlying arguments here all come down in a sense to whether or not people believe in one shot at life or in many. If you do not believe in multiple lives then like you say, what was the reason? Yet the moment you shut down your monkey mind, the pure energies of your thought consciousness took control and you followed a course of action that your thinking mind deems irrational and pointless. Your monkey mind, your conditioned headset you are wearing thinks you need to only think of yourself and your personal gain from any given situation. ie. seflishness.
Now shutting down that part of your brain allowed something to happen which everyone can argue about all they want and call it whatever fits their current accepted truths, but nevertheless something did happen. A animalistic creature of habit would not suspend that nature and help someone so it must be more than that.
And for those that argue that negative feelings don’t cause negative reactions coming back or personal sicknesses, simply observe the attitudes and lifestyles of those around you and what happens in their live and I am certain that you will start to see some patterns.
Remeber, science is only a small part of philosophy so try to see the broader range of pictures and ideas.
Of course, these are only mine which doesn’t make them right, but my current understading of the nature of things that continually is in a state of growth and change.
It’s a rarely used word these days, but the word is 