every action is selfish...

Right on the mark.
We are really talking about self here, since no 2 selves are the same, we are always acting according to self in one way or another.

I have seen people do charity work in Africa; they give of their money and time, and devote many hours of their lives to improve the lives there. Whether they are seen as selfishly motivated or not doesn't make any difference to the people being helped. I applaud them.

I agree with you in every bit...I am just merely pointing out that such is not even close to being enough...the issue needs further and deeper evaluation...

As I said before most of those persons have the ability to fit someone else´s shoes, which is all in all a very profitable thing to the general development of Society and Human Kind at large...still I don´t find it unselfish if we dig deeper into human soul...more, it does n´t have to be in order for them to have my applause.

Wayne, Well put, and I agree.

Motivation is what drives humans to act one way or another. That we label them selfish or altruistic doesn't matter to the person doing the act.

It always matters to have a deeper insight on who we truly are, each of us...(but I see your point)

There's an old song "Garden Party" the line goes, you can't please everyone so ya got to please yourself.

What do you want to "evaluate?" Nothing in life is perfect; we can only decide on our own whether actions are motivated by good will or not. As I've said before, selfish is in the eye of the beholder. That doesn't make any difference to the person who is motivated to do good or bad works.

When we deem the Hero as selfless, we're not really thinking about his/her mother.

One final note: I give to two charities, the Habitat for Humanities and to Second Harvest Food Bank. They provide housing and food to the needy without any regard to race or culture. I believe in their good works, and most of the money donated to them goes towards the purpose for which they were established.

Whether people see my donations as selfish or not doesn't mean anything to me. I'm motivated by the simple fact that they provide for the needy regardless of race or culture, and I'm in a position to do so. That's enough for me.

I look at this issue as a side event out on a bigger picture on how the Universe works concerning "natural laws"...as we could say regarding Economy there ´s no such thing as a free lunch if we jump to Physics we can conclude that there are no eternal motion machines..."work" is the product of effort and applied energy, that must result in a gain or in a transfer back of energy...for every action a reaction...

Nobody disagrees on you here Cic...

Some times analogies work, but not on this kind of subject. There is no such thing as "natural laws" governing motivation.

really ? then you must be a metaphysical entity Cic...

I disagree; please identify for us what natural laws you are talking about based on human motivation? The only one I can think of us to satisfy hunger.

In my book of "epistemology", a very personal one, ethics like economics are yet another side branch of Physics...

Motivations are not born out of the blue Cic...actions and reactions there...unselfish would ultimately imply the opposite...if it is the case that you can see or understand what I mean...

...the "motive" for your so called pretence unselfish action always imply s a "gain" at least to you subjectively speaking...

I disagree again; economics is not science. That's the reason why there is no way to totally forecast the economy of any country or state, and there is no one who can predict the outcome of the stock market's future. It's all about motivation, but the outcome is unknown.

How you label the status of Economy is of no major interest here...you are sidestepping the point !

...its like saying there is no weather just because you cannot predict what the weather will be in 2 months time...

Who's motivation are you talking about? Motivation doesn't guarantee success; it's only the precursor to an action.

I think this depends on how we view our relationship to natural laws.
Where do we draw the line between natural law in relation to the human race, and natural law in relation to the human individual.