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  3. Claim: No act is done purely for the benefit of others.Reason: All actions—even

Claim: No act is done purely for the benefit of others.Reason: All actions—even

游客2024-01-12  19
问题 Claim: No act is done purely for the benefit of others.
Reason: All actions—even those that seem to be done for other people—are based on self-interest.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
选项
答案     Is there any act that is truly altruistic? To some people the answer is a firm no. They claim that there is not a single human act that is purely in the interest of others. Instead, it is argued that all those actions are actually motivated by self-interest, even including those actions which appear to be examples of altruism. Although I acknowledge the facts that certain behaviors, though seemingly altruistic, are driven by self-interest, it cannot be denied that there are indeed actions done purely for the benefit of others in the society or the benefit of his or her fellow countrymen.
    First, on an individual level, I agree with the notion that some seemingly altruistic actions may have indeed been motivated by self-interest. Here, the recognition of being altruistic itself is morally rewarding, and hence the pursuit of this very moral reward leads to altruistic behaviors. For example, charity donation is commonly considered to be altruistic and a philanthropist may seemingly rightfully claim that they do so in order to help the poor with little expectation for favors in return. While this is the case on the surface, we must not forget that such actions are often accompanied by applause and admiration from the public, meaning those who donate to the charity actually benefit from their behaviors in a largely non-material fashion. Hence, from an individual perspective, there are certainly cases where self-interest may indeed partially drive some of our actions that at first glance seem completely altruistic.
    Second, on family level, some even question the concept of altruism that is purportedly existing between parents and children. Conventional thinking always praises the great sacrifice made by parents for their children and regards it as a noble form of altruism. Yet, another school of thinking actually argues that such actions also have self-based motives. The fundamental premises of their lines of reasoning are that the goal of our survival is to pass the genetic information, embedded in the DNA of our cells as well as in those of our offspring. As a consequence, the sacrificial behaviors of parents can be interpreted as a way of the so-called "selfish genes" to ensure their passage to the upcoming generations. This hypothesis explains why in certain animals the mother would kill her offspring when she determines that the chances of survival for the baby are slim. To conclude, even the parents’ seemingly altruistic devotion to the children cannot always be seen as without any self-interest.
    Despite the aforementioned examples showing that many purportedly altruistic actions are done based on self-interest, it would be logically going too far to argue that all actions are based on self-interest. There are still many cases in which an act is done for the benefit of other people. Particularly speaking, the survival of the group, be it an ethnic group, a nation, or the entire human race, prevails the self-interest and leads the individual to commit selfless act. In animals such group survival instincts abound. For example, certain old preys will proactively sacrifice their lives to predators in a way to ensure the younger population still survive. Similar principles can also be applied to human society. In the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King sacrifices his life to fight for the equal rights of black people in the United States. Soldiers are willingly ready to sacrifice their lives to achieve the greater good for their fellow countrymen in the time of wars. In the finale of recent blockbuster series Avengers, Tony Stark, the Iron Man, knowingly give up his life for the survival of the human race as well as other species in the universe. Though the final example is a pure fiction, together with other real-life example, it still vividly and forcefully illustrates the existence of true altruism in our society.
    To sum up, I cannot fully agree with the claim that no act is done purely for other people and the reason that all actions are based on self-interest. While there are many seemingly altruistic actions that can be interpreted in a selfish fashion, many other actions are indeed carried out for the benefits of the others and at the sacrifice of those who do it. (701 words)
解析     本题的主观点是：没有任何纯粹为他人利益而做出的行为；给出的理由是：所有行为都是基于自己的利益，哪怕是那些看起来是为了他人的行为。很多同学看到这道题目觉得如鲠在喉，只看到利他主义四个字，觉得无话可说，原因如下：
    首先，利他主义这个概念太抽象了。利他主义，指的是个体的行为不是为了自己的利益，而是出于他人的利益，或者说把他人的利益置于自己的利益至上。其次，利他主义本身也是有争议的，这篇文章的思辨性就在于此。有学者认为所谓的利他主义并不存在，比如在地铁上让座，这看起来是一个利他的，但让座的行为会给让座者带来声望上的奖励，还是利己的。
    同样，有一派进化生物学者认为，父母对于子女的关爱其实也是受到基因驱动的，因为作为基因，想要延续自身的存在，就需要靠后代的繁衍。这其实是理查德.道金斯《自私的基因》一书中的观点，建议大家可以快速浏览一下，会让你对生命有一个新的认知视角。
    回到这篇文章，实际它就是认为利他主义完全不存在的学派。但注意到这是一个是非判断，而且语气非常绝对，那么我们就可以思考：到底有没有一种行为是真正利他的?如果有，那么作者的观点就可以被反对。当然，我们承认地铁让座和父母带小孩存在一定的利己因素，可以作为让步段。但在我看来，利他主义行为是确实存在的，在社会和集体层面，牺牲小我、成就大我就可以看作是利他的。比如马丁.路德.金为了黑人民权运动而奉献了自己的生命，又比如解放军战士冒着生命危险抗洪救灾。不知不觉中，这篇文章的三个层面已经显现出来了，分别是个人层面(让步)、家庭层面(让步)以及社会层面(主观点)。我们认为社会层面上利他主义行为是确实存在的。
    本篇文章正文段可以写三段，每一段都可以至少举一个例子，加上个人——家庭——社会这三个视角层层递进，思路严谨，文章要拿到高分相对容易。尤其请留意本文最后一个主旨段的例子，我们使用了电影《复仇者联盟》中钢铁侠为了宇宙和平而牺牲自己作为范例。很显然这是一个虚构的角色，钢铁侠的行为在这世界也并非真实存在，但为什么它还可以用来作为例子呢?这个问题留给大家去思考。
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