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19768 | The better Golden Rule is 'do good for yourself without harming others' [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Instead of the sublime maxim of reasoned justice 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', pity inspires a less perfect but perhaps more useful one: 'Do what is good for you with as little harm as possible to others'. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality [1754], Part I) | |
A reaction: His revised maxim is like J.S. Mill's formula for liberalism. The first maxim seems more contractarian, the second more utilitarian. |