THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE: Altruism and Selfishness
Scruton, Roger
HE FIRST PIECE OF MORAL ADVICE thatparentsusedto give their children was contained in the Golden Rule:Doasyouwouldbedoneby.Christianparents backed this up with the parable of the Good...
...The ant and the bee may obey the genetic imperative that sends them to their death against the intruder: but they have no idea of doing this for the sakeoftheheaporthehive.Noteventhelioness,who fights to the death for her cubs, has any knowledge that it is for their sake that she does this, or that she is makingthemagiftofherlife.Thelittleword"sake"is one of those words--like "the" and "that"--to which a whole book of philosophy could be devoted...
...Like many a person brought up in the grim routines of Northern Protestantism, he believed that no action could be truly dutiful if you didn't approach it withgritted teeth, and that pleasure was a sign of selfishness...
...ISITNOTOBVIOUS,fromChrist'sdescription,thatthe GoodSamaritanenjoyedhelpingthemanwhofell among thieves, that he went out of his way, from anabundanceofgoodwillandfromthesheerpleasure ofgiving,tosetthemanonhisfeet?AndisitnotprobablethatthepriestandtheLevitefeltnopleasureatall when they passed on the other side, and maybe that they did so with a cringe of self-loathing...
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...It is just a ploy of the parasitical, to curtail the freedom of the heroes, and to seize their goods...
...The first is the gospel of selfishness, preached by Ayn Rand...
...Two powerful influences have disturbed that old equilibrium...
...the concept expressed by this word, or the motive explainedbyit,andtodescribeanimalsasaltruisticis to place an immovable obstacle in the way of understanding their behavior...
...No animal has R O G E RS C R U T O N WhenIprotestedthatIwasdoingmy dutyinwalkingthedog,andtherefore couldbeexcusedfromthewashingup, heretorted,"Butyouenjoywalkingthe dog;sothatdoesn'tcount...
...Shefiredherideaslikemissilesintoall the citadels of opinion, with vivid characters as their advocates and engaging dramas as their proof...
...but the rest of us ought to worry rather more about the use of this term to run so many disparate phenomenatogether.Isitreallythecasethattheofficerwhothrowshimselfontoalivegrenadeindefense of his men is obeying the same biological imperative asthesoldierantwhomarchestohisdeathinthefire...
...We should not be surprised, therefore, to discover that European cities arefullofdisorientedteenagerswhothinkofthelaws ofmoralityasrulesoflongtermself-interest,andwho seemunabletoimaginewhatitwouldbe,todosomething for any other sake than their own...
...When a father works to provide for his children...
...Her novels and essays may not be the highest literature, but they grab the reader by the throat and defy him to sayso.Andwhenthestillsmallvoicespeaksupatlast, questioning whether it is exactly selfishness that is needed by a free economy, or whether there are not other aspects to human life, other things to strive for, other sources of satisfaction than the satisfaction of me,thereplycomes:ofcourse,that'sexactlywhatIam saying...
...It all seemed very simple...
...The opposite of selfishness is not disinterested love, but the kind of slave labor that the statedemands,inordertobe"altruistic"withthesurplus.Aneconomybasedonselfishnessisoneinwhich people also give...
...so that doesn't count...
...The idea that the moral motive is somethingtobeacquired,bylearningthehabitofselfsacrifice, seems to have no place in modern thinking, and it is not surprising, therefore, if the moral motive has so little place in modern life...
...Learning to loveyourneighborasyourselfislearningtotakepleasure in the things that please him, as a mother takes pleasureinthepleasuresofherchild.Tocallthis"selfishness" is to abuse the language...
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...Europeans, who are snobbish about American culture, are also shamed by American altruism...
...By being selfish, she argued, I enjoy my freedom and amplify my power--so creating at least one attractive person in the sea of second-raters...
...This is not, as Rand would have us believe, just another form of selfishness...
...Call 800-524-3469 or log onto www.spectator.orgjust about...
...After all, what is morality aboutifitisnotaboutlivingwithothers?Andhowcan youlivewithothersifyoudon'ttreatthemasequals...
...an unselfish act is one directed at others...
...But when you ask forwhosesakethisorthatisdemanded,theansweris always: yourself...
...anywhere...
...It is an altogether higher motive,oneinwhichtheotherhasreplacedtheselfas theobjectofconcern...
...Taken together, the Randian encomium of selfishness and the biologist's debunking of altruism seem to undermine those old maxims whereby our parents brought us up...
...She is obeying a species need that we admire because we share it, but which we also pass beyondintoanotherstateofmindofwhichthelioness knows nothing...
...Moreover, it is a motive of which animals know nothing...
...His socialist opinions came from the same source: not a desire for justice, but a resentment of success.Myfatherwasoneofthosepeople--andBritish society is as full of them now as it was full of them then--whomakeAynRandlookplausible.Andmaybe itwasbecauseIearlyrebelledagainsthisoutlookthat I have never been persuaded by Rand...
...Things have been made worse by the biological theory of "altruism," defined as an act whereby one organism benefits another at a costtoitself.Onthisdefinitionthelionesswhodiesin defense of her cubs is altruistic...
...Once they have made their fortune, Americans devote themselvestogivingitaway.Theylavishgiftsontheir school, their church, their college, or their hospital, takinganobviouspleasureindoingso.Theyalsotake pleasureinothers'success--anemotionthatseemsto have vanished entirely from European society...
...Rand's fiery mixture of free market economics and Nietzschean defiance proved intoxicating to a generation struggling to come to terms with the New Deal and the growth of the welfare state...
...an altruistic economy is one inwhichtheymerelysteal...
...The public square is full of moralizing language about hunting, smoking, drinking, and other forms of enjoyment...
...Not that our parents were entirely blameless in this matter...
...Ofcourse, Europeans are great preachers of altruism...
...Roger Scruton, the writer and philosopher, is most recently the author of Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (Continuum...
...By announcing "the virtue of selfishness," she reminded her readers that creation comes before distribution, and that creation needs a motive...
...But the more they preach, the less they give...
...The core idea of morality, the idea contained in that little word "sake," is rapidly vanishing from the European consciousness...
...And if so, is there anything really praiseworthy about the officer's action...
...So too is the soldier ant marching by instinct against the fire encroaching on the ant-heap, or the bat distributing its booty around the nest...
...Geneticists have worried about how to reconcile "altruism" with the theory of the selfish gene...
...even when a man lays down his life for his friend--all this is selfishness, doing what one wants to do, because one has the motive to do it, because that is T H EP U R S U I TO FK N O W L E D G E 3 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 AltruismandSelfishness by Roger Scruton T O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 3 9 what the I requires...
...The moral motive is made to look either mistaken or trivial: either something to avoid, since it impedes our creativity, or something unavoidable,sinceitisimplantedinourgenes,justas it is implanted in the genes of the bear, the buzzard, and the beetle...
...T H EP U R S U I TO FK N O W L E D G E 4 0 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 The American Spectator makes good reading...just about...
...anywhere...
...A selfish act is one directed at the self...
...And the truly unselfish person is the one who wants to perform unselfish acts, who takes pleasure in giving, and who enjoys the prospect of another's success...
...To act for the sake of others, when temptation pulls in another direction, is to obey an imperativethatgoesbeyondeveryspeciesemotion.It istomakeagiftofoneself,ofone'sinterests,andatthe limit of one's life, and the words of the Gospel--that "greaterlovehathnomanthanthis,thatheshouldlay downhislifeforhisfriend"--describewhatisreallyat stakeinthemorallife,namelyself-sacrifice...
...Indeed, whole books of philosophy are devoted to this word, since that is what moral philosophy is about--acting not just for a purpose, but for the sake of something, be it honor, duty, or another person...
...My own father was none too clear about the distinction between caring for others and caring for yourself...
...And what motive will drive people to take the risks required by wealth creation, unless it be self-interest...
...Rand was a terrific intellect, in every sense of the word"terrific...
...Don't listen to that socialist claptrap, Rand told us...
...HE FIRST PIECE OF MORAL ADVICE thatparentsusedto give their children was contained in the Golden Rule:Doasyouwouldbedoneby.Christianparents backed this up with the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jewish parents with the commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself," enlightened parents with their own version of the Categorical Imperative...
...Amalgamating Adam Smith's "invisible hand" with Nietzsche's condemnation of the "slave morality," Rand gave to the would-be entrepreneurs of the mid-20th century the courage to say "get off myback...
...Unlike the officer who throws himself on the grenade,thelionessdefendinghercubsisnottempted to save herself...
...The old training in "sakehood," which our parents regarded as the first step in moral education, simply does not occur...
...when a woman spends her money on a person she loves...
...IT IS NOT SURPRISING IF,afteraheavydoseof Rand, people end up unsure whether selfishness is a good thing or a bad thing, or exactly how you must behave in order to pursue it or avoid it...
...For they do not regard others as their personal concern: It is the state, not the individual, that has assumed the duty of charity, and when things go wrong--as in the recentfloodsinEngland--itisthestatethatmuststep in to help...
...When I protested that I was doing my duty in walking the dog, and therefore could be excused from the washing up, he retorted, "But you enjoy walking the dog...
...But I alsoprovideworkandrewardtoothers,helpingthose around me to be selfish, and therefore successful, in theirturn.BybeingaltruisticImerelywastemyenergiesonuselesspeople;andwhenthestateisaltruistic in my name, seizing my goods and distributing them among its ever-growing ranks of dependents, then freedom, creativity, and wealth are all at risk, and futility rules...
Vol. 40 • October 2007 • No. 8
