An unselfish act is impossible?

[Tanken]

Maybe you already had a post about this, most likely cause you seem to talk about everything. But I'll give it a go anyhow.

I belive that every act is in it's motive selfish/egoistic and I don't mean this in a bad sense. It just seems to me that it has to be true.
The reason is becuase we are animals our primary instict would be survival and self preservation. How can an animal preform an act that would hurt her self?

An obvious argument that suggests that human do perform unselfish acts is the example where "John" saves a total stranger from drowing and in doing so risking his own life, for example.

The reason for doing something that doesn't benifit "John" and even potentially harming him might seem unselfish but is actually a selfish act. He does it because a) he would feel good about himself if he saved another human life, he would then derive plesaure from it, or b) he does it because, even though risking his own life, he would feel worse just watching a man die and doing nothing about it, in this case he saves the man to lessen his own pain and suffering.

The argument in b) applies to many situations.

I'm just about done now but before ending this post I'd just like to say because every act is selfish, the word itself loses all meaning. It never needs to be used becuase it has no real opposite. An unselfish act can never be performed. (Altruism is the opposire word for egoism, btw)