Economic Behaviour As If Others Too Had Interests

Chapter 1 - The Hegemony of Human Egoism

1 Chapter 1 The Hegemony of Human Egoism Humans as Egoistic Beings It is not uncommon to see people assisting one another, for example, by giving directions to strangers, contributing to charities, volunteering to work in refugee camps or in hospitals, sending aid to victims of natural calamities, visiting prisoners, feeding the hungry, paying school fees for orphans, and binding the wounds of survivors of accidents. Such interventions are usually described as altruistic acts in comparison to the pursuit of self-interest.1 However, at least in real life, all human acts are pursued for certain selfinterests irrespective of whether we refer to the actors as altruistic or egoistic people. Acting out of self-interest is characteristic of each one of us whether we are male or female, white or black, tall or short, rich or poor, religious or atheist. We normally act in our own interest. In other words, we are largely egoistic.2 Obviously, other people do benefit from our activities but this does not necessarily mean that their welfare is what initially motivates us to carry out those activities. What initially and primarily motivates us is self-interest. Other people’s interests are secondary or even unintended or they are sometimes unavoidable. Certain egoistic acts are sometimes mistaken for purely altruistic acts. This is due to a narrow understanding of what pure altruism would mean and what acting out of self-interest means. Many people erroneously think that any assistance rendered by one person to another is an act of pure altruism. Yet, charitable people are never motivated by altruism alone. The people we mistakenly refer to as altruistic3 are those who spare some of their time and effort to work for other people’s welfare. But even for such people, the welfare of other people is only a secondary motivation. They intend to meet their own interests and only as a second intention the interests of other 1 David Kelly, “Generosity and Self-Interest,” The Atlas Society (January 2005) http://www.atlassociety.org/generosity_self-interest ( 25th February 2012) 2 Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. 2nd ed (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), 228-34. 3 We shall later on argue that pure or absolute altruism does not exist. 2 people. Purely altruistic acts do not exist. At best we have acts that are motivated by a mixture of self-interest and some degree of altruism. Of course, there are some moral geniuses, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. But, they are extremely rare; moral geniuses are individuals who, at least occasionally, put the interests of other people prior to their own personal interests. Nevertheless, even for moral geniuses, the self-interest motivation cannot be ruled out – purely altruistic acts do not exist! In real life most people are instinctively egoistic and altruistic only cognitively. Our first, immediate, primary, and usual instinct is to act out of self-interest. Most, if not all the so-called altruistic people are indeed motivated by their own interests, at least partially. Their egoism is piously sugar-coated with altruistic spices. The Human Instinct for Survival: the Origin of Egoism and Altruism The human person can hardly survive without the assistance of other people.4 Unlike other animals, human beings leave their mother’s womb when they are still too feeble to fend for themselves. They spend a long time before they are weaned from their mother’s breast and even after they have been weaned, the inevitability of some kind of support from other people continues until death. The support of others is indeed needed until the person has been buried. In other words, dependence on other people characterizes the person’s whole journey here on earth; it begins from the womb and ends until the person rests in his tomb. Given its fragility, a baby can only depend on the mercy of other people. Soon after it is born, the baby instinctively realises that the only way for it to survive is to depend on the mother for everything. In fact the baby gradually develops the illusion that everything the mother does is for its own survival; whatever the mother does is in the interest of the baby. Psychologists tell us that between 8 and 12 months, infants develop a fear for strangers, stranger anxiety, and instead they develop an intense bond with those who care for them. “No social behaviour is more striking than...