| miz1q2w3e said: I believe that humans don't do this for the sake of said higher ideal, but rather for their self interest. Helping others just so happens to be in one's self interest is all. |
Well, it's not in their self interest in the usual sense of that term if they don't profit from it or expect anything in return. But there are proven psychological benefits to not being a self centered individual, though, and this could be why they feel good about living this kind of a lifestyle. However I wouldn't be so dismissive of the idea that people do try to live up to their loftier ideals, even though there's something else they'd rather be doing.
And that's what is meant by free will. You can make literally any choice you want. You won't, obviously, because you are a person with certain tastes and beliefs and so on. Yes, it's true that these things were developed in large part by factors largely out of your control, some of it when you were just a baby and hardly even aware of what was going on past the tip of your nose. But you are not a slave to instinct unlike an animal which doesn't just make the choices it wants to make, but makes the only choices it could ever make.
