Can selfless love be selfish love?
One of my favorite episodes of the show, Friends, was when one of Phoebe’s friends told her that no one ever did anything that was completely selfless, and Phoebe set out to prove her friend wrong. She informed him that she often gave her friends gifts and never got anything in return, and that was selfless. He reminded her that she felt good about the gift after giving it, so she did get something from it. She went to the park and let herself be stung by a bee, and then she went back to her friend and showed him the bee sting, insisting it was a selfless act because she did not want to be stung, so it was only for the bee’s benefit that she allowed it to happen. Her friend informed her that a bee dies right after it stings. One could also argue that every “selfless” act she tried was done in order to prove to her friend that she could be selfless, so the acts were actually selfish.
