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Single Idea 6235

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 1. Ethical Egoism ]

Full Idea

Though no creature can be called good merely for possessing the self-preserving affections, it is impossible that public good can be preserved without them; so that a creature wanting in them is wanting in natural rectitude, and may be esteemed vicious.

Gist of Idea

Self-interest is not intrinsically good, but its absence is evil, as public good needs it

Source

3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit [1699], II.I.III)

Book Ref

'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.180

A Reaction

Aristotle held a similar view (Idea 92). I think maybe Shaftesbury was the last call of the Aristotelians, before being engulfed by utilitarians and Kantians. This idea is at the core of capitalism.

Related Idea

Idea 92 Self-love benefits ourselves, and also helps others [Aristotle]

The 26 ideas with the same theme [view that people should put themselves first]:

2166 We should behave well even if invisible, for the health of the mind [Plato]
1636 Wickedness is an illness of the soul [Plato]
3025 For a Cyrenaic no one is of equal importance to himself [Aristippus young, by Diog. Laertius]
88 Nobody would choose all the good things in world, if the price was loss of identity [Aristotle]
91 A man is his own best friend; therefore he ought to love himself best [Aristotle]
5856 Self-interest is a relative good, but nobility an absolute good [Aristotle]
3031 The greatest good is not the achievement of desire, but to desire what is proper [Menedemus, by Diog. Laertius]
1769 Cynics believe that when a man wishes for nothing he is like the gods [Diog. Laertius]
4851 Reason demands nothing contrary to nature, and so it demands self-love [Spinoza]
17220 Self-satisfaction is the highest thing for which we can hope [Spinoza]
6235 Self-interest is not intrinsically good, but its absence is evil, as public good needs it [Shaftesbury]
3929 No moral theory is of any use if it doesn't serve the interests of the individual concerned [Hume]
23059 Self-interest is not rational, if the self is just a succession of memories and behaviour [Sidgwick, by Gray]
2885 The noble soul has reverence for itself [Nietzsche]
20248 People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche]
3259 Nietzsche rejects impersonal morality, and asserts the idea of living well [Nietzsche, by Nagel]
4409 Only the decline of aristocratic morality led to concerns about "egoism" [Nietzsche]
18327 A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing [Nietzsche]
4517 Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak [Nietzsche]
4518 The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal [Nietzsche]
4519 The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all [Nietzsche]
23865 Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil]
23695 Good actions can never be justified by the good they brings to their agent [Foot]
9241 Loving oneself is not a failing, but is essential to a successful life [Frankfurt]
6704 Egoism submits to desires, but cannot help form them [Graham]
9761 Personal concern for one's own self widens out into concern for the impersonal [Korsgaard]