To benefit others or ourself?

Last year in my English 1020 class, we really researched different philosophies and beliefs of people. One that I really was drawn to was the study of altruism and the motivation behind it. As human beings, why do we perform acts of goodness? What is the motivation behind it? For example, we see a homeless person on the street. Some might instantly have sympathy for him; some might instantly think, “Get a freaking job”. Let’s look more at the sympathetic character. So, this person decides to buy him some food, a simple value meal from McDonalds. He or she gives the homeless man his food and then feels better about the situation. First of all, why did they purchase the food for someone else? You might say, because he or she was just doing something nice for someone else. Okay, but where deep down inside did this moral behavior come from? After he gave the homeless person their food, they felt better. So, did they do this act of kindness so that they could feel better about his or herself? Are we blind to our own personal motivations to why we perform selfless acts? If this is the case, are the characters in our society that do not perform good acts better off than the ones that do? I mean, it seems that most perform them only to better their own self-interest. I mean, this is just a theory. I’m sure that the there are genuine people in this world. It’s just that some believe that people perform acts of goodness for their own self-interest. Next time, when you do something kind for another person, think about why you are doing it.
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