Sunday, June 26, 2011
Selfishness vs. Selflessness 3
Would promotion of the quality of selflessness be beneficial or detrimental to humanity? If everyone would give whatever they have to others, would anyone survive? If everyone would put the well-being of others at the forefront of their ambitions, would inventions be developed? Would science progress? Or would everyone be too busy taking care of everyone else?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why must the altruist be one who denies himself of stability and comfort, one who forgoes development and progress? Is the nurse who travels to Africa to tend to the sick and frail any more selfless than the professor who researches for hours in a quest for a cure of cancer? Scientific progress and societal development can both be viewed as selfless when the motive is to benefit others. The philanthropist who continues to build industry and develop new products is acting upon selfless intentions, to generate and supply funds for those in need of assistance. Maintaining one’s health, caring for one’s basic needs, are also activities that are crucial for the continuity of one’s altruism.
ReplyDeleteIf you were really selfless, you would care about the millions of people who are in need of IMMEDIATE assistance! There wouldn't be time to invent new commercial products and spend many hours in a lab, or to conduct research for the remote possibility of discovering something which may eventually lead to a cure for some disease. There are people alive now who need money and food NOW, and if we put their needs before our own, we would be attending to them at the detriment of our personal development. If we would advocate that everyone should adopt such an attitude, would that be detrimental for society?
ReplyDeleteWhy the assumption that the pressing needs of today have priority over the needs of tomorrow. The potential to save the masses of the future from cancer is as selfless an endeavor as saving the individual cancer patient of today. This is not about personal fulfillment and success, it is about the most strategic plan to enhance and improve as many lives as possible.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good argument. However, from a Torah perspective, we are more responsible for people who are already living than for people who are yet to be born, let alone yet to be conceived.
ReplyDeleteIf God only wanted selflessness, wouldn't he have told Avraham, "Lech Li" instead of "Lech Lecha"?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I've got another passuk, from today's parsha:
ReplyDeleteDeut 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; 13: to keep for thy good the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day?