The very fact that, for millennia, philosophers have given deep thought to the problem of selfishness is good evidence that it’s an enduring part of the human condition. But how can we recognise when it’s truly a problem within ourselves? And how might we endeavour to overcome it? This cleverly animated short from TED-Ed surveys how a wide range of famed thinkers viewed selfishness across the ages. Ultimately, the piece zeroes in on the ideas of the 20th-century philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, who believed that overcoming selfishness required cultivating an expansive form of love centred on acknowledging the reality of the world beyond oneself.
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