Quote:
Originally Posted by iPhantom
Mine is not a point of view. Here is what selfishness means:
"1. devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.
2. characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives."
In the example we had, parents would die for their own child, thus being concerned about someone else's benefit before themselves. there is no possible misinterpretation going on here.
I know and I always keep in mind that no one had same opinions on such arguments, but this is not the case.
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I can agree with you, in most instances, the parents are willing to give up their lifes to save their children, we can see a lot of these examples all around us whether its from movies or in news papers. however from an objection point of view one could argue that, the life of a parent loosing their child is too painful so that the parent rather give away their life and let the child suffer the pain intead, hence from the perspective of the of the children, the parent has a certain degree of selfishness (which this degree cannot be define). Another way to look at it is that the parent is selfish to him/herself because he/she sacrifice his/her life to protect what is his/her's and in this case its the child, saving the children is devoted to caring for oneself too. So i would liekt o conclude that selfishness itself is much more than a dictionary definition, the degree of accuracy of a dictionary defintion does not always apply to every situation, such that the laws of physics holds true until it holds true. its better to treat a dictionary definition as an insight or as a standard of measurement in society. But when analyzing a concept, i believe the proper way to go is to looking at it from all degrees possible, or think of it in a way where different perspectives creates a bigger perspective.
I am not tryign to prove who is right or who is wrong.