Does Altruism Exist?
The altruistic needs we should focus on
Altruism is a beautiful concept. It means having unselfish concern for other people, doing things simply out of a desire to help, and not because of ulterior motives to address unfulfilled needs or fulfill obligations.
We often call others and ourselves altruistic whenever we behave in apparently admirable ways.
Altruism is often used as a reason to justify certain behaviors or to clear any doubts about the selflessness of someone’s intentions.
However, can we be truly selfless? Or are we always driven by our needs?
Does altruism truly exist, or is it just an ideal ingrained in our society?
And if we are all inherently selfish, are there some better needs we should prioritize to be better humans?
Our needs
To answer these questions, we need to take a deep dive into our human nature and our human needs.
We, as humans, are very complex beings. To evolve and survive as a species, we had to develop the ability to think abstractly and to cooperate. We developed emotions, an insatiable curiosity, and a need to understand and give meaning to everything, including our existence.
