Everyone is Selfish

[Wraitchel]

Sophus, selfless, according to you, means with no value for oneself. I still think that if I do something which benefits someone else and which costs me more than it benefits me, then the math says it was an unselfish, and in my opinion selfless act. For example, if I donated blood today, it cost me some of my strength and resistance to stress or illness. It may have made me lightheaded. Perhaps I couldn't carry boxes of holiday decorations down to the basement. I will never see or hear of the person who will receive this blood, but I may well save their life. If I told no one, and never know if it benefited anyone at all, where is the boon to me? I have succeeded in doing something selfless. Any good feeling I may have gotten from imagining some pediatric leukemia patient living to see another round of chemo is beside the point. For all I know, my blood will never even be used.

[Sophus]

You're looking at beneficial things as material things. However intelligent people such as yourself know that there is nothing greater than the feeling earned than when one gives. We only give because it satisfies a righteous/honorable need inside ourselves. Or perhaps an urge to be compassionate and caring.  There's nothing wrong with that - after all it's much more noble than the man who prides himself in his own material gain. However if we hold these values as being more valuable than our material gain, all we've done is change our priorities. The difference is we won't be giving to ourselves alone. Ultimately it's still selfish. Nobody in history has ever done anything that hasn't benefited themselves in some way.