Human beings are inherently self-interested. I don't see this as something that's debatable. People make decisions in their own self-interest, doing things that they believe will benefit themselves the most. It's part of human nature.

Yet we seem to have this belief that it's a bad thing to be self-interested, and that it is noble to instead be selfless, and do things that benefit others at your own expense.

But I'm not sure if this is even truly possible. I believe that every seemingly selfless decision that people make have selfish motivations behind them—even when the person making the decision isn't consciously aware of it.

Do people really do nice things for others solely for the benefit of others? Or is it because doing so improves their reputation? Or makes them feel like a good person?

Let's say person A and person B are dating. Person A wants to go to restaurant A for dinner, but person B wants to go to restaurant B. The purely selfish thing for person A to do would be to insist on going to restaurant A, but if person A agrees to go to restaurant B instead, is that a purely selfless decision? Clearly not, because Person A benefits from that decision. It makes person B happy with him, thereby improving person A's reputation with person B. It also gives person A leverage with person B when it comes to future disagreements—person A can say "I did what you wanted last time, so now we should do what I want." It may also improve person A's image of himself or herself, as he or she may feel like a good person for doing what person B wanted.

I believe that every selfless decision has these hidden selfish motivations. I do not think it is possible for humans to make a purely selfless decision that offers no perceived benefit to the person making the decision. Doing so is a direct contradiction to human nature.

What do you guys think? Is it possible to be truly selfless?

I don't think so. I think some people can get very close, but there is always some bit of self interest.

I think it just part of us being animals, we want to do what is best for ourselves first. However, as social animals, we also want what is best for everyone else as well (at least most of us do). There are some people that, on the outside, look very altruistic, and probably are, but I agree that there will always be some amount of selfish motivation.

To some extent I do think so yes. The relative universality of empathy seems to argue for its innateness. I think you can observe this in action too. Sometimes when people do things for the benefit of others it's close to instinctual. Like a parent shielding their child, or a soldier throwing themselves on a grenade to save their comrades. I think it's hard to argue in those cases that it's a purely self-interested action. But I suppose that also depends on what you take "self-interested" to mean.

Just hear me out:

No.

I don't really think that it's possible. Unless you gave all of your money until you were homeless.