05-31-2011, 07:37 PM
Instinct is either motiveless or not.
If it isn't, then it's not altruistic.
If it is, then since altruism is putting the interests of someone else before your own I don't think an action taken without any thought as to the consequences could qualify as altruistic. If it happened to have a positive outcome then that would be merely coincidental.
[I think the problem with the discussion is that it's attempting to pin down real world examples of an ideal--an abstract concept which can ever truly exist in reality. It's like freedom of speech--if you give two people "total" freedom of speech (and really can anything be free if it's not total?) then one could shout whenever the other tried to speak--preventing him from ever expressing himself to his desired audience ie. circumscribing his freedom of speech. Unless you tell the second guy he isn't free to express himself in that particular way in which case you've circumscribed his freedom of speech. ie. Genuinely free speech cannot ever exist.
If it isn't, then it's not altruistic.
If it is, then since altruism is putting the interests of someone else before your own I don't think an action taken without any thought as to the consequences could qualify as altruistic. If it happened to have a positive outcome then that would be merely coincidental.
[I think the problem with the discussion is that it's attempting to pin down real world examples of an ideal--an abstract concept which can ever truly exist in reality. It's like freedom of speech--if you give two people "total" freedom of speech (and really can anything be free if it's not total?) then one could shout whenever the other tried to speak--preventing him from ever expressing himself to his desired audience ie. circumscribing his freedom of speech. Unless you tell the second guy he isn't free to express himself in that particular way in which case you've circumscribed his freedom of speech. ie. Genuinely free speech cannot ever exist.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."