Whats wrong with the claim every action is based off of self interest?

Question

Whats wrong with the claim every action is based off of self interest?

Answer 1

Are you asking if the claim is true or not or is the claim good or bad.

True or not I would say 70 to 99 percent of the time most of us try to base actions to our own self interest if we have any logic about us but you can also look at drinking, smoking, gambling, drugs, or just telling white lies to save someones feelings. The people doing these things might think they are doing them for some good to themselves or even realize that they are hurting themselves but justify them and still hurt there own self interest.

So true or not true it is still hard to always act in your own self interest and then you have the further problem of not knowing what your self interest are, commercials for vitamins, healthy water, save the environment, get rich quick, social health care and so on. You might buy into any one of these or others for your own good or the good of humanity and still just be hurting yourself or just making someone else rich.

Some easy thoughts on the way you asked the question but my first answer was that there is nothing wrong with looking out and acting in your own self interest so long as you don't hurt some one else. I think that is what drives humanity, everyone looking out for there own seflinterest and working hard and trading others to get them to the benefit of all.

Answer 2

It's a very logical claim given that humans are fairly selfish animals, but what distinguishes us from animals is that we have emotions and ethical standards. They are not the same for everybody, but what is universal is that sometimes we follow them rather than our own interest. We sacrifice our interests for some of those standards and emotional responses. So you can have a man who is facing someone trying to kill him. Eventually he grabs the gun and points it at the other guy. It would be in his interest to kill him and thus save himself, but in the last moment his sense of morality stops him from pulling the trigger. It happens.

Our interests drive us forward most of the time, but we have limits. You can say most of the actions are based on self-interest, but definitely not all.