Egoism Vs. Altruism: Universal Human Traits in Eliot and Kafka

Dr. Erwin Edman opened his 1920 book "Human characteristics and its meaning" by paying attention to "two factors do not change" (ix) through civilization. One of the factors is "physical order of the universe" - or nature - and the other is "human specific device" - or humanity (ix). As Dr. Edman said, these two ideals together form a contemporary civilization: "There is nothing new in the sun, substances and human beings remain the same" (ix). From the beginning there are some fundamental human features - natural differences - each society and era is common.

One of the most common human characteristics is self-interest. Egisim is called an action that individuals take for their own benefit. In other words, individuals act for their own benefit. Selfishness is an interesting phenomenon. People think that is a bad human character, but they forget to look at it as a survival tool. Without selfishness, we may not exist as seeds. The evolution theory concerning this is growing and growing momentum. However, this coin has another side. Everything in life is balanced and shows another feature. It is called altruism. Altruism is the opposite of self-interest. Altruism is defined as a concern for the welfare of others and is encouraged as it is considered virtue in many cultures. Charity groups, donations, volunteer activities, other similar acts or groups dealing with them are regarded as selfless. Even money and time people will sacrifice some of their own and help those in need.

Self means self and self-interest can be regarded as selfishness. In ethics, egoism should be the theory of human behavior, or act according to its own interests and desires. Egisim opposes altruism and argues that humans should behave in such a way as to help others. Egoism is often associated with early Greek hedonists who pursue happiness and avoid suffering (The Columbia Encyclopedia 2002). There are several questions about how people act in a purely selfish manner. In the literal sense, selfishism can be proved easily wrong. People may be motivated by countless emotions such as anger, fear, love, compassion, pride, justice, desire for knowledge, and so on. This theory assumes some ambiguity and incorporates intention and results. For example, smokers smoke, and smoking can cause health problems that are not the most interesting.

The relevant concepts in descriptive ethics are psychological egoisms, that is, humans always act for their own interests and true altruism is an impossible argument. Reasonable self-interest is the view that the reason is acting for your own benefit (It does not explain how this affects your moral obligation)