Single Idea 14831

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / f. Altruism]

Full Idea

Never has a man done anything that was only for others and without any personal motivation. …How could the ego act without ego?

Gist of Idea

No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 133)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Human, All Too Human', ed/tr. Faber,Marion [Penguin 1994], p.92


A Reaction

This is only a denial of the purest of 'pure' altruism. It is hard to imagine anyone performing an altruistic action which permanently shamed the reputationof its performer - though it might be possible in a nicely contrived fiction.