Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Why is selfishness a basis for morality? You haven't explained that.
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Many people believe - I am not one of them - that morality comes down to selfishness. That there really is no morality. When someone says that something is moral - what they are really saying is that something is in my self interest. Morality developed because it helps us survive. When people act morally they cooperate well with other people and they are able to dominate people (take their resources). So humans developed morality because it helps them survive (it is a mutation that helped us procreate and carry on our genetic line). In politics this translates to when someone tries to impose their will on someone else it is always for selfish reasons. Many Atheists, like my Caltech friends, think that all moral arguments really come down to selfishness. That if you propose that slavery should be ended in Sudan the only way to truly justify it is if you can demonstrate that ending slavery in Sudan will benefit the citizens of teh United States. If you send money to help starving children in Bangaladesh, they only way to support that idea is if you can show how it helps you personally. So really there is no such thing as morality. So when you are disussing US formal policy, the term the right thing to do is a stupid idea - you should just talk bout what is in the United States national interest.
Nietza took this a step further and said that our moral instincts are there because it helps the society we live in survive. But a truly rational man will understand that his moral instincts are really just instincts, and if one is smart, they can move beyond their instincts and find even better ways to survive. Like our instincts tell us not to stick needles in ourselves. But a smart man will stick in a needle, even if our instincts tell us that is bad, so we can innoculate ourselves. Similarly we have instincts that tell us not to take advantage of other people because that instinct makes societies more congenial. But if you understand that you can figure out ways of taking advantage of weaker people and not lose the benefits that your instincts. So this new "Superman" can move beyond Good and Evil and not be constrained by morality. The S.S. twisted this idea and used it as a rationalization to kill millions of people. The truly moral man will strive beyond his petty moral constraints and realize that killing innocent people is good for the Volk. So a true moral man will move beyond his irrational moral instincts.
