Why are we selfish?

Well, I think it goes without saying that we are selfish. The Question you read above: Why are we selfish already says that we are like that. But why?

The first factor, which will be pointed out by biologists, doctors, anthropologists is: we are selfish in order to survive. To keep the body alive, we would have a “natural” tendency to selfishness.

Our language is very interesting. You see: we say “I have a body” and “my body”. Philosophy makes a very interesting distinction between body and flesh.

The philosopher Husserl says that everyone has flesh (leib) but only I myself feel the my meat (korp) 🇧🇷 and therefore this flesh is my body.

In other words, I feel my body. Same as: “pepper in the eyes of others is refreshment”. I can see the other in pain, but I don’t feel the pain he feels.

In this way, we would have a tendency towards selfishness because we want to protect the flesh that is ours, that is, the body that we have.

Despite this, we would also have an inverse trend. When we reproduce, when we have children, we tend to protect the offspring. And then altruistic feelings appear: – the mother who gives food to her child, even if there is no more food left for her.

Everything is fine. Biologists, doctors, anthropologists could give this explanation. But, evidently, we are not just a body, we have a soul, spirit, culture…

And that’s exactly where I’d like to ask another question: – have you noticed how religion insists that we be altruistic, that each one loves his neighbor, is generous, charitable?

Read Also: Are you an optimistic or pessimistic person?

The strong insistence on this point, on altruism, also seems to point out that we are much selfish.

The word selfish, of course, comes from ego (from Latin and Greek) which means I. So, religious people seem to say that we are like children, who only say “me, me, me, me” all the time; “Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me!”

And it was thinking about this question (Why are we so selfish) that I chose some texts so that we can think about it.

Just for you to notice how altruism is present in world religions, I selected two texts:

1) Diamond Sutra (the most important text of Gautama the Buddha);

2) Prayer of Peace of Saint Francis of Assisi