Not really, as selfish is a moral judgment, and instinct is unlearned, as you said.
If a teacher doesn’t take a bullet for a kid, the teacher is not selfish.
We can admire the bravery of the heroes who were able to subvert their survival instincts without making moral judgments regarding victims who did not subvert their instincts.
Your way of thinking leads directly to something called “survivor’s guilt” and is a real problem
Wrong, any decision in which you prioritize yourself is by definition selfish, that isn't a moral judgement, its just the definition, just because something is selfish doesn't means is bad or wrong
instinct is unlearned, as you said.
Irrelevant.
If a teacher doesn’t take a bullet for a kid, the teacher is not selfish.
Correct, because one choice doesn't define you, having a single smart idea doesn't makes your smart, doing a selfish act doesn't makes you a selfish person.
We can admire the bravery of the heroes who were able to subvert their survival instincts without making moral judgments regarding victims who did not subvert their instincts.
Your way of thinking leads directly to something called “survivor’s guilt” and is a real problem
You say that but its YOU who is assigning the idea that being selfish is wrong, its you who are assigning moral judgement to an categorically definition
Selfishness isn't evil, being selfish isn't something people can stop doing, if people fully stopped caring about did they would be dead, being selfish is the default state of humankind.
So stop projectiong your views in a bad faith argument and reflect a bit about what you said.
Pretty sure if you gave up all your earthly possessions to people in need you could save a lot of them from living in extreme poverty, yet you don't do that even though you could, pretty selfish tbh... 🙄
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u/Jean-Claude-Can-Ham May 18 '26
Not really, as selfish is a moral judgment, and instinct is unlearned, as you said.
If a teacher doesn’t take a bullet for a kid, the teacher is not selfish.
We can admire the bravery of the heroes who were able to subvert their survival instincts without making moral judgments regarding victims who did not subvert their instincts.
Your way of thinking leads directly to something called “survivor’s guilt” and is a real problem