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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/self-interest.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/self-interest.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9455325 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/self-interest.html @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.92 --> +<title>Self-Interest +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/self-interest.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<div class="reduced-width"> +<h2>Self-Interest</h2> + +<address class="byline">by Loyd Fueston</address> +<hr class="thin" /> + +<div class="article"> +<p> +Is Self-Interest Sufficient to Organize a Free Economy?</p> + +<p> +The quick answer is, “No.” And few of the better-known +theoreticians of the free-market have ever thought that self-interest +was, or even could be, sufficient to organize, or long maintain, a +free economy. Among those theoreticians, Adam Smith is often regarded +as having been the primary philosopher of self-interest. In a book +written to correct a number of misunderstandings of Smith's teachings, +we find the following summaries of Smith's view about +self-interest:</p> + +<blockquote class="italic"><p> +Far from being an individualist, Smith believed it is the influence +of society that transforms people into moral beings. He thought that +people often misjudge their own self-interest. +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +Even more directly to the point:</p> + +<blockquote class="italic"><p> +[Adam Smith] regarded the attempt to explain all human behavior on +the basis of self-interest as analytically misguided and morally +pernicious. <a href="#fn1">[1]</a> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +As Adam Smith certainly realized, self-interest will be one of the +principal forces organizing economic activities in any society, but +that is as true of the most repressive or brutal society as it is of +a relatively free and open society. Most of us will not like the +results of self-interest untempered by a respect for other creatures. +As a recent example, in running their country to the disadvantage of +most Soviet citizens, the leaders of the Communist Party and of the +Soviet military and intelligence services were advancing their own +self-interests, at least as they understood or misunderstood those +interests.</p> +<p> +The advantages enjoyed by Americans over citizens of the Soviet +countries, and the advantages we still enjoy over the nominally free +citizens of Russia and other eastern European countries, are those of +a society organized to allow a high percentage of Americans to act in +such a way as to serve both their self-interest and some substantial +stock of moral principles. Not only our habits and customs, but also +our positive laws — such as those of copyright — enter +into that organization of our society, for good or bad, but not in a +morally neutral manner.</p> +<p> +Self-interest is not necessarily evil, though it can lead people to act +in morally reprehensible ways. The love of self, and the consequent +development of self-interest, is one aspect of a creature who is also +a social, and hence moral, being. Self-interest itself can serve +moral interests in a free society so long as that society has the +proper foundations. The elements of those foundations include not only +a populace sharing a substantial body of moral beliefs and habits but +also the formal political structures, positive laws, and accepted +court decisions capable of supporting both social order and personal +freedom. Once those are in place, and once they have been +internalized by the bulk of the citizens, then self-interest will +provide a fuel of sorts to keep an economy functioning effectively +without leading to immoral results on the whole. The question is +always: Is our society organized properly, in its positive laws and +in the habits we teach our children and reinforce in ourselves, so that +self-interest and moral principles do not generally come into +conflict?</p> +<p> +Those people aware of modern mathematics or of programming techniques +should appreciate the recursive, and inherently unstable, interactions +between individual morality and social structure. To oversimplify in +a useful manner: People with substantial moral beliefs organize +societies along those beliefs and those societies then begin to form +the habits and beliefs of children, immigrants, etc. according to +those same beliefs. Always, it is a messy historical process which +can be destroyed or rerouted into less desirable paths. There is +inevitably a question as to whether we are straying from a proper path +and also a question as to how robust the society is, i.e., how much +of a disturbance it would take to destroy much of what is good about that +society.</p> +<p> +Sometimes, good people will decide that something has gone wrong and +it is time to fight for a moral principle even if it becomes necessary +to sacrifice, or at least qualify, their own self-interest. In the +words of Thomas Sowell, a free-market theorist of our time:</p> + +<blockquote class="italic"><p> +There are, of course, noneconomic values. Indeed, there are +<em>only</em> noneconomic values. Economics is not a value itself but +merely a method of trading off one value against another. If +statements about ‘noneconomic values’ (or, more +specifically, ‘social values’ or ‘human +values’) are meant to deny the inherent reality of trade-offs, +or to exempt some particular value from the trade-off process, then +such selfless ideals can be no more effectively demonstrated than by +trading off financial gains in the interest of such ideals. This is an +economic trade-off. <a href="#fn2">[2]</a> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +In context, Professor Sowell was not arguing against those imputing +some sort of moral power to self-interest; he was instead arguing +against those who think there should be an easy path to the reform of +a society which may have a particular moral defect. Those are two +sides to the same coin — serving self-interest may put a person +in conflict with moral values and the attempt to serve moral values +may lead to some sacrifice of one's self-interest.</p> +<p> +Self-interest can be a powerful fuel for a society, at least when the +citizens of that society are well-formed individuals, but there is +no mystical or magical aspect to self-interest that guarantees moral +results. Self-interest will lead to generally moral results to the +extent that moral constraints, external but mostly internal, guide +the actions of the self-interested parties. A society with the proper +constraints does not come into existence by some act of magic, but +rather by the acts of people who are aiming at a higher purpose, whether +the preservation of liberty in the society as a whole or the +preservation of a cooperative spirit within communities of +programmers, or maybe both of those at the same time.</p> +</div> + +<div class="infobox"> +<h3>Footnotes</h3> +<ol> + <li id="fn1">Both quotes are from page 2 of “Adam Smith: In His Time and +Ours”, Jerry Z. Muller, Princeton: Princeton University Press, +1993.</li> + <li id="fn2">From page 79 of “Knowledge & Decisions”, +Thomas Sowell, New York: Basic Books, 1980.</li> +</ol> +</div> + +</div> +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to +<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. +There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> +the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent +to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations +README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations +of this article.</p> +</div> + +<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to + files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should + be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this + without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. + Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the + document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the + document was modified, or published. + + If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. + Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying + years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable + year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including + being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). + + There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers + Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> + +<p>Copyright © 1998 Loyd +Fueston <a href="mailto:fueston@banet.net"><fueston@banet.net></a></p> + +<p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is +permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2020/10/06 08:00:33 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |