Altruism: An Argumentative Analysis

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When pondering the meaning of life, participating in altruistic deeds is, in my opinion the most sensible way to carry out a meaningful life. Altruism is defined as helping others to lead a good life with out too much suffering. Altruism falls under the category of optimism, but is still a realistic belief. In order to prove altruism is the best argument for the meaning of life I will need to prove that it is a credible argument and also discredit the objections and show why they are incorrect. I will respond to various objections to the claim that carrying out altruistic deeds will lead to a meaningful life, including objections presented by Baggini. Baggini provides some of the main objections to altruism being the true meaning of life. The immediate threat presented to counter altruism is psychological egoism. Psychological egoism is a belief …show more content…

This problem claims that altruism is only intrinsically good, and it is only a means to an end. I disagree with this claim and I believe that altruism can be both intrinsically and extrinsically good. It is clear that altruism is intrinsically good as it can result in a better understanding of morals and beliefs for both the recipient of the help and the one that provided the assistance. Altruism can also be extrinsically good. Helping other people because they are suffering can produce results that are extrinsically good for both parties as well. For example, after you have assisted someone who is suffering the person who received the aid could potentially do something in the future that he or she would be unable to do without the previous assistance. This thing then could benefit the one who acted altruistically in the first place extrinsically. Baggini himself even said that altruism at least values the right thing, which is leading a full life. The same cannot be said for other common optimistic

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