Apparently, I'm still working on making a thesis since I failed to do that in my rough draft. I guess that's the hardest part for me. So, I'm looking at articles relating to selfishness, greed, and selflessness. I'm hoping that can guide me somewhere. Well, for today's blog, I decided to read a very interesting article called "The Paradox of Selflessness." If anyone's in for a short but good read, I would definitely view this.
I believe that the author’s argument was that there is no such thing as selflessness. There were some neat reasons to back this up. She states that when you do a selfless act, you are actually doing it for a selfish reason--to feel good about yourself. Or you could being doing that act to give yourself piece at mind. For instance, I could see a homeless dog outside of my home and give it food. Sure, that sounds selfless. But here’s the thing to consider: the thought of not doing that “selfless” act would haunt me. Therefore, I’m being selfish because I’m doing this act for the sake of having piece with myself.
Another neat point she brought up is forgiving someone for doing wrong to you. Is that really being selfless? Let’s say that my friend stole my money. I would be upset and angry. I control how I feel though. I’m the one destructing myself. Forgiving my friend is being selfish because I am healing myself from my own harm. I hope this doesn’t sound too confusing. I think I want to head down this road for my paper. It’s interesting and arguable.
Marques, Joan. "The Paradox of Selflessness." Journal for Quality & Participation 30.1 (2007): 17-19. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.
I'm also doing my paper on greed and selfishness. So far the articles that I've been reading haven't really helped me as a whole; they give me a couple good quotes that I can possibly use. Maybe we could share some points together in class? I didn't do well on my thesis either! What episode are you doing your paper on?
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely agree to sharing ideas with each other in class. I feel like maybe I'm looking for the wrong articles, or maybe I'm asking the wrong questions so the articles I'm searching aren't much help. As of right now, I'm switching my episode to "The Message." I'm still basing my paper on greed but I think I'm going to switch it up a bit and form a thesis that Jayne is not selfish as he is portrayed. Well, something like that. :P
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