I've been doing some interesting reading for one of my seminar classes, "Global Humanitarianism: The Paradoxes of Giving." Neat stuff. I came across a question in one of my readings that I am interested to see how people answer.
" When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid and so selfish, how comes it that our active principles should often be so generous and so noble? When we are always so much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves, than by what concerns other men, what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others?" - Adam Smith
I think for myself, and perhaps for others, it is a conscious awareness and dislike of my selfishness that leads me to intentionally act against it. For those of us coming from a Christian frame of reference, it is also because we have been commanded to love others and to consider ourselves as stewards of the resources we have been given.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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