Quote Originally Posted by Alpha View Post
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I'm not sure that every action has to be egoistic. For instance, if I worked myself to death for the protection of the environment---maybe confronting a bulldozer in the rainforest for the sake of illustration---I could be doing so to secure a future that I will never experience. How is that egoistic? It is action made on the concept of what is good, but the goodness will not be experienced by me, only by others (future generations). Are people who go to war and die in the defense of people they don't know (or who don't exist yet) acting egoistically? These people can't even experience the gratitude that the future may hold for them. Self-sacrifice is hard to explain.

These questions are less rhetorical than questions I usually ask, I'm genuinely interested in seeing how you justify actions that benefit future persons, because they seem to me to be less egoistic.
I think this comes back to alturism. I dont remember if we came to an understanding about the nobility of it, but judging by this thread, alturism falls under the catagory of egotistical fullfilment. I bet it feels good to want to protect something, and succeed. Or at least knowing that you tried to stop the bulldozer, may be satisfaction enough in your mind.