Altruism Vs Selfishness Essay

Altruism vs Selfishness

In a lot of ways altruism and selfishness are really related. They booth involve doing something for one’s own enjoyment but are they the same? Which leads to questions like what is altruism, what is selfishness, and how are they similar from one another? These lead to the same thing are they truly different.

Altruism that is defined by Kendra cherry” Altruism involves the unselfish concern for other people. It involves doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons” (cherry). Basically it is when you commit and act to really benefit some else’s but not you. A good example of this is people in emergence services, law enforcement, and military.

As an example “the bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations” (Marx 19). So whenever the bourgeoisie has the chance to make money they will take it even if it means sacrificing any relations. Now selfishness can go the other way. In the communist manifesto, it says, “we communist have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man’s own labor” (Marx21). The selfishness in this is that people don’t think its fair for one person to have more than him. Now that person wants to take it away from everyone because he doesn’t.

The similarities seem pretty far but they are really close. The cause for both of them is motivation. In altruism the motivation is thinking about that person’s life not yours. While in selfishness its thinking about yourself not there’s. Now there are tradeoffs to them in altruism it is selfish of person to throw the person’s personal life away. Examples like the person’s family and friends he/she didn’t think about the feeling of other people in their life they only thought about only someone