I'll Do Whatever I Want: The Advantages of Self-Interested Thinking

It is seldom disputed that people have a natural tendency to act out of self interest, although the extent and definition of self interest have not found consensus. Debate ensues on the topic of whether this tendency is a paragon of morality, a vice to be conquered with altruism, or somewhere in the continuum between the two extremes. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand professes a view of morality where the only moral actions are those that follow the rational inclinations of man.[1] The view of Joseph Butler, espoused in his sermon Upon the Love of Our Neighbor, is that man should harbor a benevolence and love for his fellow neighbor and engage in those actions that best serve both himself and his neighbor.[2] In reality, these views are equivalent in their results and applications. Despite different views of motivation, the theories ultimately prescribe similar actions. The precept of strategic self-interest advocated by Rand is moral not merely because it embraces rationality, but also, it will be demonstrated, because it fosters a flourishing in one's neighbor. To act rationally and with strategic self-interest is to think locally and act globally. In adopting a set of rules that benefits only the individual, reality dictates concessions and compromises that dispute Rand's fundamental disposition to helping others but stem from her idea of self interest and collaterally benefit everyone.

Ayn Rand summarized her philosophy as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."[3] While Rand does not spell out a definition of self interest, this approximates it. Rand felt that self interest is the long-term promotion of one's own intellectual and productive capabilities and happiness. Rand critiqued conventional altruistic moral codes as being immoral because they dismissed pleasure and rational self interest.[4] She felt that the "mind is (the) only judge of truth" and that "the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death."[5]

The more interesting part and the more compassionate part of Rand's theory is her statements about the results of self interested rationality. The heart of Rand's philosophy is her definition of "happiness" as the result of pure rationality prompting constructive actions[6] by way of virtues. Rand's admiration of Aristotle[7] can be interpreted as an endorsement of Aristotle's theory of virtue and suggest an incorporation of Aristotelian virtues into Rand's theory. Aristotle's theory describes virtues as character traits that are demonstrated to the outside observer by repetition and promote general welfare.[8] While Rand is influenced by Aristotle's definition of "virtue," she is not necessarily bound to the idea of promoting general welfare. But she is not opposed to it either. So Rand's characterization of self interested happiness allows for the indirect promotion of the happiness of others although it does not require it. To grant that a self interested philosophy promotes the general welfare would be charitable to Rand's moral code even though general welfare is purportedly irrelevant under her code.

Rand's philosophy can feel cruel and detached in its blunt expression of self interest as a central force. It seems that evil actions are permitted if they are self-beneficial. However, while Butler's sermon expresses the principle of benevolence as an underlying motivational force of action, it will be demonstrated that the basis of Butler's argument relies on self interest and that self interest does not allow evil actions. Butler states that "love of our neighbor would teach us thus to appropriate to ourselves his good and welfare, to consider ourselves as having a real share in his happiness."[9] While Butler admits that "love of our neighbor then must bear some proportion to self-love," he says that "virtue to be sure consists in the due proportion," and consequently morality is measured by the proximity to "the law of perfection, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'"[10] Butler sees loving one's neighbor as a projection of self-love, the ability to treat others based on the principles of self-love because empathy is the only way of evaluating external good. While this sort of internally motivated kindness can be seen as utilizing the precondition of self-love in order to go beyond the wants and needs of oneself, it can more accurately be seen that without satisfying one's own desires there is no basis for doing good for others and consequently self love is of primary concern.

A Randian might reply that this happiness received from helping others is really just compliance to an alternative moral code and cite Rand's denouncement of a moral obligation to a fellow man except for the overlapping of mutual interests.[11]

However, benevolence can be the self-sustaining product of rational contemplation. Benevolence is less than altruism and Butler says that

the benevolent man is disposed to make use of all external advantages in such a manner as shall contribute to the good of others as well as to his own satisfaction. His own satisfaction consists in this.[12]

For example, imagine two farmers whose crops are fertile some years but barren in others. One year, a fortunate farmer gives his crops to his unfortunate counterpart. Why did he do this? If he does this merely out of hope of reciprocation, he is still being benevolent and reducing his own immediate benefits in order to propagate his long term interests.

Of course, situations of such clean cut mutualism are only a small fraction of a society's interactions. Take another example of a community of farmers who all have occasional years of barren crops. They decide to start a fund of voluntary contributions for the unfortunate farmers. A Randian would agree that it would interest any individual farmer to volunteer some crops because the rational principle of the general fund is a permissible reason to surrender a little personal property under the law of entirely self interested actions.[13] Butler would look at the situation from a different angle and argue that while "love to others" is considered, it is considered no more than the individual farmers' "regard to themselves" and that both allegiances are permissible "in (their) due degree."[14]

Butler concludes that actions that benefit the community as a whole are right when the principle of benevolence and neighborly love guides individuals into renouncing self-interested impulses. Rand regards brotherly love as irrelevant. However, self-interested tendencies benefit the community. In order to serve oneself best in the long-term, limited benevolence can be a useful tool of the self-interested Randian to cajole advantages from other individuals and from the community as a whole. The Butlerian vision of a struggle against self-interest and the Randian vision of a struggle against altruism both yield practices that benefit both the community and the individual. Ultimately, Butler's and Rand's views are both incorrect. Butler's theory needs self-interest to explain the knowledge of what the neighbor wants and Rand's theory melts under its own logic and ends up helping the community in a way that would make Rand shudder from perceived excessive benevolence. Neither theory, in application, produces the results desired by their designers' theoretical predictions.

[1] Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Dutton, 1992.

[2] Butler, Joseph, and Stephen L. Darwall. Selections. 1983; Five Sermons, Preached at the Rolls Chapel and A Dissertation upon the Nature of Virtue. Indianapolis, Ind: Hackett Pub. Co., 1983.

[3]Atlas Shrugged, 1170-1171

[4] "Your pleasure, you have been taught is to be found in immorality, your interests would best be served by evil, and any moral code must be designed not for you but against you, not to further your life, but to drain it." - Atlas Shrugged, 1011

[5]Atlas Shrugged, 1017-1018

[6] "Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy-a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions." - Atlas Shrugged, 1022

[7] "The only philosophical debt I can acknowledge is to Aristotle." - Atlas Shrugged, 1171

[8] Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Book Two, Section Five.

[9]Five Sermons, 59

[10]Five Sermons, 61-62

[11] "Do you ask what moral obligation I owe to my fellow men? None-except the obligation I owe to myself, to material objects and to all of existence: rationality. I deal with men as my nature and theirs demands: by means of reason. I seek or desire nothing from them except such relations as they care to enter of their own voluntary choice. It is only with their mind that I can deal and only for my own self-interest, when they see that my interest coincides with theirs." - Atlas Shrugged, 1022

[12]Five Sermons, 63

[13]Atlas Shrugged, 1022

[14]Five Sermons, 65