Cris said:It is otherwise known as altruism.
It is impossible to achieve. Every voluntary action is for personal pleasure. The appearance of selfless love is deceptive because it gives pleasure to the person giving the love, and hence is not selfless. I.e. the person expects to feel good about loving others.
In Christianity it is far from attractive since it is expected according to doctrine as opposed to voluntary, and the proponent expects to be eventually rewarded by eternal life in a heavenly paradise. Hardly selfless actions or intentions.
...but generally you don't have a choice with those issues, that isn't selfless love simply involuntary neccessity.
Yup. Cleaning up puddles of vomit from a sick child comes to mind. Definitely not something I want to do but it has to be done.Do we ever do things because we must?
I admit this troubles me deeply. What personal reward is there for sacrificing one’s life? There can be none unless there is an afterlife.Some people give their lives with death or pain being the only knowable reward for the act of sacrafice.
Not sure why selflessness would be dependent on the actions of others.
water said:Our love for others is selfless when it is not influenced or defined by how they act or treat us.