Are there logical arguments for why one ought to be Altruistic?

Are you a religious man?

I believe that's just a convenient illusion...on a strict self inquisitive closer look, in the very least the first reward you have is a sense of usefulness that immediately alleviates your anxiety's or compensates lesser moral moments in your life, and that's precisely why I feel ashamed of ever announce whatever altruistic actions I take...I equate the problem with physics and its processes, energy is always traded and never lost...so if people can act altruistically some gain must exist, you can't be just dissipating effort and energy...most people are buying moral superiority over those who don't act altruistically and make it quite loud so that everybody know how good and wonderful they are, that isn't just kitsch and self indulging but essentially it is provincial and stupid...

Sure, energy is never lost, but on the same note, it might just end up supplementing a sun other than your own. Is it good enough that your "good energies" are just floating out there in the ether, with no possible way to call them home?

As I see it it works like a system or a web, return is not linear nor immediate...you work to stabilize the system has a whole !
I believe no living being can work against the structure and basic rules of nature, so gain is there if you look carefully.

...in a system or better said social ecosystem there's no such thing as your own sun...

And that's the tragedy of it all, isn't it?

Once you realize complex tasks require cooperation or you are left with a babel tower is not that bad...hell we need interaction ! In the extreme what ? would we be living all alone in one big planet just for us ? What's the good of it ? Is not just about people you know...its about how systems and engines work, its about how things assemble and depend on each other, its mathematical !

On the other hand there is nothing to prevent you to exploit the system up to an optimal point, the sustainable one, on which you don't kill the golden Guss...in other words you are entitle to what you can handle efficiently as long it doesn't harm the harmony of the system itself...some people because they are dumb serve a lesser purpose have a lesser field of usefulness...

Exploitativeness ad absurdum is a poor move strategically, I agree. Even a general knows when and how hard to push his soldiers, knowing that even if a resource is there, it is not always wise to drill too deep.

An intelligent person understands well how circumstantial life is and has empathy with those lesser fortunate...so is that true altruism ? no of course not...its just the realizing it could be me in his/somebody's place, and it still can tomorrow...I can have a stroke, an accident etc that impairs my intellectual ability...so what is my gain by helping ? making sure if it happens to me somebody will help me...and can we do that if not by example by re enforce the idea socially ? I am investing in preventing the extremes because I can very well be on the lower side in the future...altruism there ? no, just playing safe !

Well, that's the common genetic strategy-- so why employ it if everyone else does it for you? (In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of an immoralist.)

Be careful there...humans are animals of habits and nobody can fake it forever...mostly we have automated responses that give away our true intentions...when spotted a wolf will be severely punished ! Why do you think the common Joe is always so suspicious of intelligent people ? The default is assuming they are a potential wolf...

Another thing is to understand just how futile consumerism is...I don't want anymore then my fare share in life...compulsive consumerism is a waste of focus ! It just means you are poor inside...the more you have the more you need shows a trauma of lacking in childhood...

I had a philosophy teacher that used to say he wanted enough money to not think in it...to much and you are harassed the whole day ! Phone calls from everywhere, stock market ups and downs, infinite business meetings...its hell !

"Some such carelessness is often the greatest recommendation of talent. For envy exercises ostracism, most envenomed when most polite, It counts it to perfection as a failing that it has no faults; for being perfect in all it condemns it in all. It becomes an Argus, all eyes for imperfection: ’tis its only consolation. Blame is like the lightning; it hits the highest. Now and then and affect some negligence in valour or in intellect--not in prudence--so as to disarm malevolence, or at least to prevent its bursting with its own venom. You thus leave your cloak on the horns of Envy in order to save your immortal parts."

I would rather die on the slopes of Vesuvius than live in the lands of milk and honey.

I agree a frugal life makes you more focus less fat and more aware ! You see the pattern in there ? always the optimal for anything...the optimal is just the enough, not the maximum...to much weight and you will drown in your own greed...

I prefer to think of life in terms of Individual vs Social considerations as a basis for decision making rather than, which appears to be more accurate than Selfish vs Selfless - which latter terms evoke so much morally judgemental emotions that accurate communication on the subject becomes rather difficult .

While people accept that it's a good thing to consider your individual identity (and to be genuinely yourself) in a social setting, most will still believe you a better person if you are 'selfless'...which two concepts contradict.

From the same reasoning I think statements like 'all actions are inherently selfish' to have the same contradictory flaw as 'you should be selfless'.

Call it what you wish-- Individual Vs. Social, or Selfish Vs. Selfless, the argument then just becomes semantics. Euphemize it to a bloody pulp, but we are still talking about the same subject at root. I am speaking purely from a physiological point of view: all actions are selfish, because at heart, all are the direct result of an organic calculus which has opted that strategy as the most efficient/viable solution at hand (all things being equal). Some people are just rewarded higher "dopamine treats" for kindly actions, and others not so much-- but in the final analysis, a reward is the ultimate achievement for both sides.

Bingo!