Why are People? (The Selfish Gene pg.2-11).

According to Dawkins, being altruistic means, doing things for the well of a community or a group, not for ones own interest. “An apparently altruistic act is one that looks, superficially, as if it must tend to make the altruistic more likely (however slightly) to die, and the recipient more likely to survive”. I realized Dawkins was arguing and giving examples of this behavior so he can compare it to selfishness, which clearly is much more common between humans. I personally think that in many cases I am a very selfish person. However, I am altruistic in some other cases, for example, when I help my friends before helping myself, or when I think of others first. I also behave in an altruistic way when I take decisions that will benefit others and not myself.

Like I said before, talking about altruistic behaviors led Dawkins to talk about selfishness. According to him, being selfish is refusing to share, and acting for ones own benefit all the time. “…Selfish behavior may simply consist of refusing to share some valued resource such as food, or sexual partners”. I think being selfish is sometimes useful because not everyone has good intentions and sometimes they just want to see you get hurt. When you act in a selfish way the possibilities of getting hurt are much less than when you benefit everyone else.