Are human beings selfish or altruistic by nature or by cultural socialization?

Résumé du document

An altruistic person acts for the good of the others. Such a person looks for the happiness of people around him/her. An altruist does not act for his/her own interest. Therefore, sometimes we can imagine that altruistic people do not act for the good of the others. In fact, altruism can be seen as a selfish way to satisfy your own interest. Because perhaps, the altruist action can may serve to satisfy your own happiness. The term altruism can take very different meanings. Altruism is sometimes developed as a fundamentally benevolent disposition (like altruism of parents towards their children), as an interested disposition (altruism simulated to maximize his earnings), and sometimes even as a malicious disposition. We look into the various facets of altruism and its changing meanings in several contexts in this document.

Extraits

[...] Someone who is altruistic acts for the good of the others. An altruistic person is looking for the happiness of people around him/her. An altruist does not act for his/her own interest. Therefore, sometimes we can think that altruistic people do not act for the good of the others. In fact, altruism can be seen as a selfish way to satisfy your own interest. Because perhaps, the altruist action can may serve to satisfy your own happiness. The term altruism can take very different meanings. [...]

[...] Indeed, we cannot satisfy all the time others by these actions, but we try to make maximum. It makes you feel good, feel happy to have the recognition of a person one respects from what we did. Although we act for others in the community, if it is done by obligation, it is unethical because deep inside us, we feel no real desire to do so since it is only in order get personal satisfaction. For example, Singer says in his book that people are willing to do things they know to be wrong just for having more money. [...]

[...] Some ways of behaving are etched in the patterns of human behaviour and that is why it is not always ethic's actions. The major example used by Singer in his book is the one of parents who care for their children. In fact, parents do not care for their children in the hope that once adults, their children take care of them in their turn. Because, the love of a parent for his child is in human nature. And they do not need to be looking for a personal interest to act ethically for their children. [...]

[...] However you can not be altruistic in any situation. For example, altruism is almost unimaginable in the trade. It is incompatible with the profit of a company. Altruism applies to the whole and not to a private interest. Nevertheless, you can still be altruistic with friends, family and with people you appreciate, someone you want to please Giving precedence to love each other on the love of self, altruism emerges as struggling against your own selfishness. Regarding selfishness, it is the fact of acting for its own interests. [...]

[...] Every human being has a different way of acting and thinking. But I think that socialization plays a major role. In fact, socialization is a learning process and each person interprets things in a different way, either to be selfish or altruistic. The sociologist Weber has conducted extensive studies of socialization. Weber managed to define socialization as a process by which the individual appropriates the rules of an organization, all interactions for the construction of social identity of the individual. [...]