is your view on psychological egoism if
we're all ultimately acting out of
self-interest then does all tourism have
any merit I don't think the question is
well posed and that's it's one of those
questions that leads into a
philosophical dead-end because it's not
well post there isn't any such thing as
self-interest it's not the right way to
think about it because you're not alone
and so this is why I like Piaget Jean
Piaget because he thought about this
intelligently look first of all whose
self-interest do you meet do you mean
your immediate self-interest in the next
second so that would be impulsive
pleasure we're all acting for the
gaining of impulsive pleasure and to
hell with everything else well obviously
that's a stupid way to behave because
and everyone knows that because you can
do impulsive short-term gratifying
things like snort cocaine now and you
can keep doing that and it's a payoff
real real well in the extremely short
term and they'll just augur you into the
ground in the medium to long term so if
you're acting in your own self-interest
let's take that apart over what period
of time your self-interest in the next
second your self-interest in the next
hour
like if you're impulsive and you want to
gratify an impulse you're obviously
acting in your self-interest in the next
second or the next two seconds or the
next minute but you know you'll pay for
that
maybe you punch someone or you slap
someone because you're so angry and then
you know they knock you for a loop and
and then they charge you with assault
you know so well it was great in your
self-interest in the second but like
future and remember that Simpsons
episode Homer drank a quart of
mayonnaise and and vodka when and Marjan
all his kids were telling him not to and
he said well that's a problem for future
Homer I sure don't envy that guy it's
like which is one of the best Simpsons
lines ever I think and well that's it
exactly it's like well there isn't just
you there's there's now you and there's
tonight you and there's tomorrow morning
you that's the one that will have the
hangover by the way and there's next
week you and next month you and next
year you and old you and so if you're
gonna act in your self-interest you have
to take that collective of use across
time into account when you make your
decision and now here's the cool thing
about that so then let's say well that
would be acting in your self-interest
writ large right across time spans but
the thing is future you and someone else
that you have to live with right now
that's not you are pretty much the same
people and so if you're gonna act in
your self-interest and you have other
people around you then you also want to
act in their self-interest because
otherwise they won't like you they won't
cooperate with you and they won't
compete with you in a reasonable manner
and so that's going to be a catastrophe
and so you want to act out what's good
for you now and what's good for you next
month and next year and you want to do
that in a way that's good for you and
your family and your community right now
next week and next year and you're going
to take all those things into account at
the same time
that's an equilibrate again from
piagetian perspective and it was his
idea that that constituted the basis for
proper moral judgment and it's a
brilliant idea it's a brilliant idea
and so that's your true self interest
there's no difference between your
interest in the interest of others not
in any fundamental sense even your
enemies which is why you're enjoying to
treat your enemy as if he was yourself
because he is you know when you think
well you should wish well you should
wish your enemies well well why well it
isn't that you hope they get a bigger
house than you it's that let's say
you're you're being pursued and
tormented by someone who's truly
reprehensible that person is they have a
miserable life man in all likelihood
let's say they're truly malevolent you
know they live in Hell and what you
might hope for them is that they could
figure out how to get out of there
because it's not good for them and it's
not good for anyone else think well even
your enemies it's like wouldn't it be
good if they could get their act
together and stop being so unnecessarily
malevolent and that's in your
self-interest so the idea that your
self-interest is somehow opposed to
other people's or that if you maximize
your self-interest you're not operating
in the best interests of other people is
predicated on a poor idea of what
constitutes your self-interest because
you're not separate in any real sense
from other people you may be not
separate from everything in some real
sense you know I mean young young in his
book mysterium conjunction us
had this idea I'm gonna go through it
real quick it's a complicated idea that
this is how you put yourself together
the first thing you do is you you join
your emotions and your and your
rationality so that so that your mind
and your emotions are one thing he
called that the first conjunction so
that your motivations and your emotions
and the way that you think about the
world are all acting in the same
direction okay so that's the first
conjunction and you get your act
together that way so that would mean
incorporation of aggression and
sexuality from a Freudian perspective
those parts of you that are difficult to
integrate come to be integrated into one
thing so you can use your anger when you
need to and you have your sexuality
under control it doesn't have you but
you know how to use it and it's a power
for you and and you're properly
assertive in all of those things and so
you you build yourself into one
psychological unit and then you embody
that so that's the second conjunction
the second conjunction is take your mind
emotion motivation unity and act it out
act it out in the world so that there's
no distinction between you and what you
do between you and the way you think
about the world and your philosophy and
how you act that makes you at second
kind of unity and then the final
conjunction which is the most difficult
one is to stop thinking that the world
is different than you are this is why I
ask people to clean up the rooms it's
like your room is you it's you and so
you go in there and you clean up your
room you're cleaning you up - the same
way you're developing discipline you're
putting yourself in order you're
developing a vision of the future you're
figuring out how to dress your figuring
out how to take care of your things
you're interacting with the micro cosmos
that you have in front of you and
learning how to balance chaos and order
there's no difference between you and
what's around you and that's a very
difficult thing to understand and so you
want to act in a way that's good for you
but good for everything else at the same
time and that's that's a high moral
virtue and that's so there is there
that's the right way of thinking about
the relationship between psychological
egoism and altruism it's like if you're
as you move towards a broader
conceptualization of things you start to
understand that there is no selfish self
in there is no selfish self-interest it
isn't how life works like if you're
married to someone for example and
you're stuck with them for the next 50
years it's like you can't win an
argument with them you can make peace
because they're you man
they're you there are a huge part of
your experience you have to treat that
person as if they are you and that it's
not
it isn't like well I'm gonna treat you
well because you're me it's because
people don't treat themselves very well
often it's way more complicated than
that you just you don't want to defeat
your wife man because then you live with
a defeated wife and if you think she
isn't gonna take revenge on you then
here you're not very bright so you want
to listen to what she has to say and you
want to listen to her problems and you
want to help her solve them because
she's you and you want to do the same
with your kids and then you want to do
the same with the people around you if
you can do it so and so the whole idea
of like well we're basically wired to be
selfish well we are when we're not very
wise and we act impulsively but as your
view of the world broadens you start to
understand that this is why in in the
Buddhist philosophy you know Buddha
attained Nirvana so that meant he could
stay in union with the gods so to speak
he he attained the highest form of of
subjective experience what might be but
which might be something like total
immersion in in bliss and meaning but he
rejected it because he went back into
the world to help other people attain
nirvana or at least to move towards it
because he realized that there was no
individual redemption without the
redemption of all and you if you don't
understand that then you're just not
very wise and so you're trying to be a
force for good in the world and that
doesn't mean just good for you that's
just it's just blind cuz there isn't any
isolated you that isn't how things are
that's now realities lays itself out so