Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Yes people have come up with moral systems based on self interest. And generally people agree that morality helps people survive. If in a society there are rules against killing and stealing etc. then the society will be stronger because there will not be internal conflict. But as far as morality is concerned you run into what I like to call the Nietchza problem. If one can see that the morality is there purely to help the society to survive, the smart rational player would want to live in a moral society, but not be moral themselves but make the rest of society think they are moral (become a superman beyond burgeous morality). You want to live in a moral society because then your neighbords won't steal your stuff or kill you. However, if you live in such a society, if you can get away with it, you should steal your neighbors stuff because that will benefit you. As long as your neighbors don't know that you are doing it, then you should do it. If you can cheat on your taxes and get away with it you should because it is in your self interest. In a moral code that is purely based on self interest and practicality how can argue that someone should not steal from their neighbor if they can get away with it?
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1. They don't know they can get away with it.
2. If they do it, then what is to stop everyone else from doing it?
3. True self-interest requires the rational person to recognize that each individual break in the social contract weakens it, and no one of us can be certain at what point the contract will be too weak to hold.
