Is Altruism possible?

Altruism is defined as “A selfless concern for other people purely for their own sake. It is considered to be a motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interest.” 

Is Pure Altruism Possible?

Pure altruism, we think, requires a person to sacrifice for another without consideration of personal gain. Doing good for another person because something’s in it for the do-er is the very opposite of what we have in mind.

When we ask whether human beings are altruistic, we want to know about their motives or intentions. Biological altruism explains how unselfish behavior might have evolved.

Altruists should not be confused with people who automatically sacrifice their own interests for others.

Altruism is possible and altruism is real, although in healthy people it intertwines subtly with the well-being of the agent who does good. And this is crucial for seeing how to increase the amount of altruism in the world. Aristotle had it right in his “Nicomachean Ethics”: we have to raise people from their “very youth” and educate them “so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought.”

Altruism comes from education.

Personally, I believe that altruism is possible. Of course most people would say that it is not , basing their conclusions on the fact that we as human beings tend to be more selfish and would help others only if we can gain something from it ourselves, or believe that the individual will reciprocate in the future. 

Others also argue that when we think we are being altruistic there may be other motives at play, such as the desire for recognition, to make us feel better. Are we stating then that we always act selfishly and always have selfish tendencies? Because we are imperfect human beings does not mean that we should always use our imperfections as an excuse to refute the fact that we have at some time done something altruistic in our lives.  

We need to ask ourselves, does helping someone else give us more satisfaction than helping ourselves? If that is the case, then we are altruistic and it is possible. Altruism is when you act for somebody else’s benefit rather than your own. It is concerned not with duty or consequence but with motive. More often than not we read in the papers or hear on the news how greedy and malicious individuals can be. 

However, on the other hand, we are so proud to hear of instances whereby individual s jeopardize their lives to save others, whether it be running into a house blazing with fire to help a child or an individual caught In the flames.

A human being can never be completely altruistic it takes a balance of Altruism and selfishness to sustain a community.