User:Explodr/Kindness Paradox

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The action always benefits the user

The Kindness Paradox refers to the impossibility of a truly unselfish act due to simple evolutionary nature.

It works like this: Guy α sees guy β, a homeless man, begging for money on the street. α puts a few dollars in β's jar, and feels fulfilled despite having potentially squandering his wealth. Since every action done by any animal is to achieve the best possible outcome, it is not possible for one to do anything one truly doesn't want to do. The action might be undesirable, but the result always benefits the actor, at least in their own mind. Here are a few more examples:

-A young woman in the holocaust is forced to perform slave labor. Of course she doesn't want to, but not laboring would mean death, which is the less desirable outcome.

-A man somehow moves in front of a bullet to protect his wife, dying in the process. His choice benefitted the wife at his own expense, but his decision meant he would rather she survived than him.

-A boy notices another student in his class has forgotten his lunch

External links

• example.com