Mansi asks: Do you think that even the most selfless acts are, at the root, selfish?

I do think that most of my selfless acts are at their root partially selfish acts. When I am doing something for another person or group of people it makes me feel good inside. Naturally I like to feel good inside so I continue to do things for other people... it feels good.

I like to feel good. When something I have done really helps another person I have faith that my good deed will follow the only life law I have seen and felt through experience prove itself to be true.. "What comes around goes around" is what I am talking about and since I know this to be true the knowledge that in the future my good deed will be repaid to me as good fortune this also plays into the motives for my "selfless" acts. So while I like to help people for the sake of helping them the side effects of me feeling good and the pseudo-promise of good fortune for me in return for these acts excludes my actions from being purely selfless... they are more of a combination of both selfish and selfless actions that benefit both the intended benefactor of my actions and myself.

I can really only speak for myself and my actions here.

No not for everyone. I doubt that Mother Teresa did what she did for selfish reasons. I think a person who gives a gift without letting themselves be known or speaking about it is for selfish reasons.

I don't think it making you feel good is selfish. It is human nature to feel good when you do something nice for someone. They have names for people who make themselves feel good by hurting others.

But it is a natural human reaction and feeling good is no way selfish.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.