Of Self-Love and Benevolence

 

 

Un pasaje de los Thoughts on Man de William Godwin que no deja de recordar lo que es la tesis central del What Is Man?  de Mark Twain— sobre la subterránea conexión entre altruismo y egoísmo. 

 

In the time of the ancient republics the impulse of the citizens was to merge their own individuality in the interests of the state. They held it their duty to live but for their country. In this spirit they were eeducated; and the lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.

In a more recent period we have learned to model our characters by a different standard. We seldom recollect the socieety of which we are politically members, as a whole, but are broken into detached parties, thinking only for the most part of ourselves and our immedate connections and attachments.

This change in the sentiments and manners of modern times has among its other consequences given birth to a new species of philosophy. We have been taught to affirm, that we can have no express and pure regard for our fellow-creatures, but that all our benevolence and affection come to us through the strainers of a gross or a refined self-love. The coarser adherents of this doctrine maintain, that mankind are in all cases guided by views of the narrowest self-interest, and that those who advance the highest claims to philanthropy, patriotism, generosity and self-sacrifice, are all the time deceiving others, or deceiving themselves, and use a plausible and high-sounding language merely, that serves no other purpose than to veil from observation "that hideous sight, a naked human heart."

 

(William Godwin, Thoughts on Man, Essay XI: Of Self-Love and Benevolence)

 

 

Eficacia adaptativa del autoengaño en el altruismo

 

 

—oOo—