We explain what it is to be selfish and how a selfish person behaves. Also, his moral and philosophical doctrines.
What is it to be selfish?
When a person is called selfish, or accused of practicing selfishness, we usually mean that said person at all times puts your personal well-being or the satisfaction of your desires, the well-being of others or the collective needs before you. A selfish individual, like this, is someone who thinks only of himself, which can lead him to behave meanly in front of others.
In general, selfish people feel that they are much more important than they really are, or they have themselves as the center of the universe and think that others should be very aware of them and their needs. They are thus incapable of altruism or generosity, even when it costs them nothing.
Egoism is commonly held in the West by a defect and a conduct reprehensible, which does not contribute to the common welfare and is often associated with the earliest stages of psychological training, that is, childhood, since in many cases selfish people can behave as a child who has not yet discovered would your membership in a community much vaster and a more complicated world.
However, many other moral and philosophical doctrines, if not psychological, have taken selfishness as a central concept. Such is the case of:
- Psychological selfishness. A psychological current that affirms that human nature is truly self-interested and incapable of generosity or altruism, because behind such acts there is a need to compensate for something and feel good about oneself.
- Moral or ethical selfishness.An ethical-philosophical doctrine that supports the maxim that the work of individuals must be oriented primarily to their own benefit, helping others only optionally and when it involves something beneficial in the short or long term for the individual. In this way, the self constructs itself and the reality he fixes on his own existence.
- Rational selfishness. It is a philosophical thesis that states that the pursuit of one's own benefit is always rational, thus turning selfishness into a normative mandate. But if psychological selfishness is concerned with individual motivation and moral selfishness is concerned with morality, the rational sticks to the logic and the capacity for human reasoning as a north. This thesis is based on economic and social theories such as the liberalism and the economy classical.
- Selfish anarchism. Founded by Max Stirner, a post-Hegelian philosopher, this current of anarchist (and therefore philosophical and political) thought appeared in the 19th century as the basis for later individualist anarchism. According to this thesis, the only limitation of individuals is their power, their ability to actually get what they want. From this point of view, all forms of religion or ideology is empty and invalid.