Allow me to disambiguate. Is it more moral to act selfishly by helping another (to fulfill your own desires) or to fulfill your desires through pleasures of the body (hedonism, gluttony, etc), and why?
From my point of view helping another person is way more moral, selfishly or not. I believe that the psychological egoism is appropriate for this discussion, it is the position that humans only act morally as it is in their self interest to do so. For example, a psychological egoist would claim that the only reason of why he doesn't steal money is because he's afraid of prison, or afraid of his feelings of guilt. But at least when you're helping someone with this way of thinking, you're doing good. Plus, helping people who are in need is truly moral, despite what would look like real altruism but it's not. Some people would argue that what is truly important is one's purposes and not the act but the truth is that we're all selfish.
In popular usage, the word “selfishness” is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment.
Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word “selfishness” is: concern with one’s own interests. So essentially good deeds can and I'm sure are done for selfish reasons but at the end of the day a good deed is still a good deed.
