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Single Idea 13292

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / i. Self-interest ]

Full Idea

No one can lead a happy life if he thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own purposes. You should live for the other person if you wish to live for yourself.

Gist of Idea

Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others

Source

Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 048)

Book Ref

Seneca: 'Letters from a Stoic (Selections)', ed/tr. Campbell,Robin [Penguin 1969], p.96

A Reaction

It is important to see this as a key aspect of the ancient aspiration to virtue. The end result is not far from Christianity. It is simplistic to see the quest for virtue as a crass self-obsessed quest for self-improvement. We are social.

The 18 ideas with the same theme [concern for ourselves, in the context of morality]:

128 Is it natural to simply indulge our selfish desires? [Plato]
12 If we were invisible, would the just man become like the unjust? [Plato]
2168 Clever criminals do well at first, but not in the long run [Plato]
3559 For Aristotle, true self-love is love of the higher parts of one's soul [Aristotle, by Annas]
5243 The best people exercise their virtue towards others, rather than to themselves [Aristotle]
92 Self-love benefits ourselves, and also helps others [Aristotle]
2810 Selfishness is wrong not because it is self-love, but because it is excessive [Aristotle]
7398 Carneades said that after a shipwreck a wise man would seize the only plank by force [Carneades, by Tuck]
13292 Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others [Seneca]
2370 All voluntary acts aim at some good for the doer [Hobbes]
7833 Spinoza names self-interest as the sole source of value [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
6243 As death approaches, why do we still care about family, friends or country? [Hutcheson]
3650 Total selfishness is not irrational [Hume]
4183 Only self-love can motivate morality, but that also makes it worthless [Schopenhauer]
2886 The distinction between egoistic and non-egoistic acts is absurd [Nietzsche]
24135 Egoism should not assume that all egos are equal [Nietzsche]
7141 A living being is totally 'egoistic' [Nietzsche]
9760 Self-concern may be a source of pain, or a lack of self-respect, or a failure of responsibility [Korsgaard]