Altruism: Freud's Civilization And It

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According to dictionary.com, altruism is “the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others” (Dictionary.com). Altruism comes in different forms. One example of altruism is community service; this type of altruism can be used for natural disasters and is typically unorganized. Another example of altruism is monks. Monks give up their belongings and give them to someone who really needs it. Although it seems like altruism exists in the human race, it is not. In human nature, altruism is non-existent because biologically a human being cannot have self interests and people have other motivations to do a selfless act., making it an extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic. In Freud’s Civilization And Its …show more content…

In particular, Freud refers to the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle causes an individual to have happiness opposed to the individual being happy because they are genuinely happy. Also, Freud talks about the ego in which he compares it to the ego. One example of where Freud talks about the ego is when he says: “originally the ego includes everything, later it separates off an external world form itself. Our present ego-feeling is, therefore, only a shrunken residue” (Freud, 29). Feud’s remark on the ego suggests that that the ego is shaped too by an external force. It is primarily shaped by the person’s ego (their wants/desires) as well as their moral conscience (superego). He also mentions that the current ego is a “shrunken residue”. Their ego is primarily determined by their id and does not allow them keep an open mind to other ideas other than their own. Another example in which Freud discusses the notion of the ego was when he …show more content…

This question refers to part of the human experience. It asks a human being what is important in their life in terms of evaluating what in life is important to them.Something important to an individual varies depending upon their values. These values can consist of religion, sexuality, gender roles, education, milestones: Marriage, graduating high school/college, death, etc. Altruism too can answer the question of what should matter to me? Society tends to neglect altruism in which they do a great deed in return of receiving something back such as a reward or

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