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<title>Self-Interest
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>Self-Interest</h2>

<address class="byline">by Loyd Fueston</address>

<p>
Is Self-Interest Sufficient to Organize a Free Economy?</p>

<p>
The quick answer is, &ldquo;No.&rdquo; 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><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><p>
[Adam Smith] regarded the attempt to explain all human behavior on
the basis of self-interest as analytically misguided and morally
pernicious.&nbsp;<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&mdash;such as those of copyright&mdash;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><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 &ldquo;noneconomic values&rdquo; (or, more
specifically, &ldquo;social values&rdquo; or &ldquo;human
values&rdquo;) 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.&nbsp;<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&mdash;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 class="column-limit"></div>

<h3 class="footnote">Footnotes</h3>
<ol>
 <li id="fn1">Both quotes are from page 2 of <cite>Adam Smith: In His Time and
Ours</cite>, Jerry Z. Muller, Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1993.</li>
 <li id="fn2">From page 79 of <cite>Knowledge &amp; Decisions</cite>,
Thomas Sowell, New York: Basic Books, 1980.</li>
</ol>
</div>

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<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</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">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>

<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
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</div>

<p>Copyright &copy; 1998 Loyd
Fueston <a href="mailto:fueston@banet.net">&lt;fueston@banet.net&gt;</a></p>

<p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.</p>

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<p class="unprintable">Updated:
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1	<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
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5	<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
6	<title>Self-Interest
7	- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
8	<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/self-interest.translist" -->
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13	<div class="article reduced-width">
14	<h2>Self-Interest</h2>
15
16	<address class="byline">by Loyd Fueston</address>
17
18	<p>
19	Is Self-Interest Sufficient to Organize a Free Economy?</p>
20
21	<p>
22	The quick answer is, “No.” And few of the better-known
23	theoreticians of the free-market have ever thought that self-interest
24	was, or even could be, sufficient to organize, or long maintain, a
25	free economy. Among those theoreticians, Adam Smith is often regarded
26	as having been the primary philosopher of self-interest. In a book
27	written to correct a number of misunderstandings of Smith's teachings,
28	we find the following summaries of Smith's view about
29	self-interest:</p>
30
31	<blockquote><p>
32	Far from being an individualist, Smith believed it is the influence
33	of society that transforms people into moral beings. He thought that
34	people often misjudge their own self-interest.
35	</p></blockquote>
36
37	<p>
38	Even more directly to the point:</p>
39
40	<blockquote><p>
41	[Adam Smith] regarded the attempt to explain all human behavior on
42	the basis of self-interest as analytically misguided and morally
43	pernicious. <a href="#fn1">[1]</a>
44	</p></blockquote>
45
46	<p>
47	As Adam Smith certainly realized, self-interest will be one of the
48	principal forces organizing economic activities in any society, but
49	that is as true of the most repressive or brutal society as it is of
50	a relatively free and open society. Most of us will not like the
51	results of self-interest untempered by a respect for other creatures.
52	As a recent example, in running their country to the disadvantage of
53	most Soviet citizens, the leaders of the Communist Party and of the
54	Soviet military and intelligence services were advancing their own
55	self-interests, at least as they understood or misunderstood those
56	interests.</p>
57	<p>
58	The advantages enjoyed by Americans over citizens of the Soviet
59	countries, and the advantages we still enjoy over the nominally free
60	citizens of Russia and other eastern European countries, are those of
61	a society organized to allow a high percentage of Americans to act in
62	such a way as to serve both their self-interest and some substantial
63	stock of moral principles. Not only our habits and customs, but also
64	our positive laws—such as those of copyright—enter
65	into that organization of our society, for good or bad, but not in a
66	morally neutral manner.</p>
67	<p>
68	Self-interest is not necessarily evil, though it can lead people to act
69	in morally reprehensible ways. The love of self, and the consequent
70	development of self-interest, is one aspect of a creature who is also
71	a social, and hence moral, being. Self-interest itself can serve
72	moral interests in a free society so long as that society has the
73	proper foundations. The elements of those foundations include not only
74	a populace sharing a substantial body of moral beliefs and habits but
75	also the formal political structures, positive laws, and accepted
76	court decisions capable of supporting both social order and personal
77	freedom. Once those are in place, and once they have been
78	internalized by the bulk of the citizens, then self-interest will
79	provide a fuel of sorts to keep an economy functioning effectively
80	without leading to immoral results on the whole. The question is
81	always: Is our society organized properly, in its positive laws and
82	in the habits we teach our children and reinforce in ourselves, so that
83	self-interest and moral principles do not generally come into
84	conflict?</p>
85	<p>
86	Those people aware of modern mathematics or of programming techniques
87	should appreciate the recursive, and inherently unstable, interactions
88	between individual morality and social structure. To oversimplify in
89	a useful manner: People with substantial moral beliefs organize
90	societies along those beliefs and those societies then begin to form
91	the habits and beliefs of children, immigrants, etc. according to
92	those same beliefs. Always, it is a messy historical process which
93	can be destroyed or rerouted into less desirable paths. There is
94	inevitably a question as to whether we are straying from a proper path
95	and also a question as to how robust the society is, i.e., how much
96	of a disturbance it would take to destroy much of what is good about that
97	society.</p>
98	<p>
99	Sometimes, good people will decide that something has gone wrong and
100	it is time to fight for a moral principle even if it becomes necessary
101	to sacrifice, or at least qualify, their own self-interest. In the
102	words of Thomas Sowell, a free-market theorist of our time:</p>
103
104	<blockquote><p>
105	There are, of course, noneconomic values. Indeed, there are
106	<em>only</em> noneconomic values. Economics is not a value itself but
107	merely a method of trading off one value against another. If
108	statements about “noneconomic values” (or, more
109	specifically, “social values” or “human
110	values”) are meant to deny the inherent reality of trade-offs,
111	or to exempt some particular value from the trade-off process, then
112	such selfless ideals can be no more effectively demonstrated than by
113	trading off financial gains in the interest of such ideals. This is an
114	economic trade-off. <a href="#fn2">[2]</a>
115	</p></blockquote>
116
117	<p>
118	In context, Professor Sowell was not arguing against those imputing
119	some sort of moral power to self-interest; he was instead arguing
120	against those who think there should be an easy path to the reform of
121	a society which may have a particular moral defect. Those are two
122	sides to the same coin—serving self-interest may put a person
123	in conflict with moral values and the attempt to serve moral values
124	may lead to some sacrifice of one's self-interest.</p>
125	<p>
126	Self-interest can be a powerful fuel for a society, at least when the
127	citizens of that society are well-formed individuals, but there is
128	no mystical or magical aspect to self-interest that guarantees moral
129	results. Self-interest will lead to generally moral results to the
130	extent that moral constraints, external but mostly internal, guide
131	the actions of the self-interested parties. A society with the proper
132	constraints does not come into existence by some act of magic, but
133	rather by the acts of people who are aiming at a higher purpose, whether
134	the preservation of liberty in the society as a whole or the
135	preservation of a cooperative spirit within communities of
136	programmers, or maybe both of those at the same time.</p>
137	<div class="column-limit"></div>
138
139	<h3 class="footnote">Footnotes</h3>
140	<ol>
141	<li id="fn1">Both quotes are from page 2 of <cite>Adam Smith: In His Time and
142	Ours</cite>, Jerry Z. Muller, Princeton: Princeton University Press,
143	1993.</li>
144	<li id="fn2">From page 79 of <cite>Knowledge & Decisions</cite>,
145	Thomas Sowell, New York: Basic Books, 1980.</li>
146	</ol>
147	</div>
148
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154	<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
155	<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
156	There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
157	the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
158	to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
159
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161	replace it with the translation of these two:
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163	We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
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165	Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
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169	<p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
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171	href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
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173	Please see the <a
174	href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
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177	</div>
178
179	<p>Copyright © 1998 Loyd
180	Fueston <a href="mailto:fueston@banet.net"><fueston@banet.net></a></p>
181
182	<p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
183	permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.</p>
184
185	<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
186
187	<p class="unprintable">Updated:
188	<!-- timestamp start -->
189	$Date: 2023/05/10 10:41:16 $
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