No one is without selfishness.

olivi

Everyone hates selfish people, yet each of us is selfish. No one is without selfishness. The philosopher Hobbes once said, 'Human nature is selfish.' Selfishness is the gene of life. The famous British evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins, in his book *The Selfish Gene*, analyzed the selfishness of organisms from the perspective of the essence of life and genes. He pointed out that 'a prominent characteristic of successful genes is ruthless selfishness,' and 'we, as well as all other animals, are machines created by genes,' leading to the conclusion that 'people are born selfish.' Although his conclusion has sparked controversy, it does not affect our understanding of human selfishness. What we aim to discuss is why, in life, some people’s selfishness is not particularly annoying and can be easily understood and accepted, while a little selfishness from others can be unbearable and provoke strong negative feelings. Clarifying this issue requires us to gain a new understanding of selfishness.

olivi

人人都討厭自私的人，可我們又個個都自私。沒有人不自私，哲學家休漠曾說“人性就是自私”。自私是生命的基因。英國著名的演化理論家理查德．道金斯在其《自私的基因》一書中更從生命的本質，著眼於基因，對生物體的自私進行了分析，他指出“成功基因的一個突出特性就是無情的自私性”，而“我們以及其他一切動物都是基因創造的機器”，從而得出了“人們生來就是自私的”結論。儘管他的結論引起過爭議，但並不影響我們對人的自私的認識。我們所要討論的是，為什麼生活中，有人表現出來的自私，並不特別討厭，讓人容易理解接受，而另有一些人表現了一點點自私，就讓人受不了，引起強烈的反感情緒。釐清這個問題，需要我們對自私有一個新的認識。