Altruism

You asked:

Do you think there is such a thing as pure or true altruism?

I would define "pure or true altruism" as something that one did to move the world in such a way that did not conform to that individuals view of how the world should be.

Let me back up on that.

To explain, let me get back to motivating emotions, perhaps we do things, as you say ...

a) through fear

For example, we get up and go to work in the morning because we are scared that we cannot pay the mortgage and feed the kids otherwise. We have a worldview that we want to achieve- in this worldview we pay the mortgage and feed the kids.

Another example, Osama's man flies an aircraft into a building because he is scared that his way of life, his ideals, his religion is being threatened by America. He has a worldview that America is "wrong" and should "pay" for this, he wants to achieve his worldview and crashes the plane.

b) through hope

For example, we get up and go to work because we hope that something will happen to make us happy. Whether the happiness is obtained by helping ourselves or others is irrelevant. We have a worldview in which "happiness" is good and we want to achieve this state - the state that our view of the world says we should be in.

Osamas man crashes the plane as he hopes that this will instigate fear in the American populace, thus conforming to his worldview that the American people should feel fear.

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What I'm getting it at here is that we people are motivated to try to conform the world to some internally held view we have of how the world should be. It's like we all have this ideal state imagined in our minds of how things should be, and we are motivated to move the world to this ideal state. (Unfortunately these ideal states don't always coincide!)

So to me, "true altruism" is where one does something that one knows is against the ideal state one has in one's own mind of how things should be.

So the examples you gave are not "pure or true altruism", for the very reasons that you pointed out.

I'm not sure human beings are capable of "pure or true altruism" by my definition .... I cannot believe that the Pope would sincerely pray to Allah, or that a non-religious person would sincerely pray to any deity.

Current song: "Ironic" -- Alanis Morissette