Sue,

Can you prove that there are no selfless altruistic acts?

You Said - "because each individual has an ego commanding his every action, the concept of selflessness is thereby rendered absurd."

REP: You are stepping on very subjective ground here. You state that an individual HAS an ego governing actions. I would subscribe to Bundle Theory, as would many others, and reject the idea of an Ego as a seperate entity sitting in command. The brain is much more complex and fluid than that.

We cannot say that the brain does not have the ability to decide to act in another's favour even if there is no reward.

The idea that the concept of selflessness is rendered absurd comes at the end of assumptions and value judgements.

Prove to me that I am not capable of selflessness.

And the idea that there is always a reward so there is no selflessness makes an unwarranted logical leap:

Because there is always a reward therefore all acts are selfish assumes that our thinking always factors in the reward before acting. Prove it.

You write - "Unless you are egoless, you are selfish. Any act by the ego is to serve itself. We may place ourselves in harms way, but we do so because to do otherwise would not give us the self-satisfaction we desire."

REP: "There are many example of people giving their lives for another. Where is the satisfaction in self-annihilation?

You write - "Any act by the ego is to serve itself.!"

Again, can you prove it. It seems to be one of those arguments that is impossible to argue either way. Like the Shrink who tells you:

"You're in denial".

"No I'm not".

"Ah! See, you're in denial".


If we really follow your conclusions to their logical end then instead of rewarding soldiers or firemen with medals for bravery we could just as sensibly pillory them for being selfish b'stards. Big fan of Sartre are you?

Blacknad.