Monday, May 15, 2006

Gamma - The Moral Code and Virtue In Selfishness

(I am publishing this as an incomplete thought hoping that you are the readers and participants of LETLAR can help in the refining of a concept that all virtue stems from our own selfish acts)



LETLAR

Gamma

Chapter I



Morality



We are not virtuous in spite of our own inherent selfishness, but are virtuous because of our inherent selfishness.



At first glance, that statement may seem backwards. It is contrary to all that we have been taught about life. A man comes to virtue through salvation, through disciplined living etc. Nevertheless, virtue is every bit about being selfish. In addition, once we understand our own selfishness we can release ourselves of the burden of being saved and work toward resolutions that not only benefit ourselves but those who share the world around us.



Even when it appears to the contrary like we do something generous for another person there is still selfish intentions.

1.) It makes us feel good – Hedonistic and selfish by definition

2.) We gain benefit of reprisal for actions deemed as unselfish – you scratch mine I scratch your

3.) We gain reputation for being selfless – that helps us prosper – an ulterior motive we are not always aware of.



To understand the nature of human selfishness we need a layman grasp of the prisoner’s dilemma and an understanding of how this affects human behavior.





Prisoner’s dilemma and Game Theory (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PRISDIL.html)



“The game got its name from the following hypothetical situation: imagine two criminals arrested under the suspicion of having committed a crime together. However, the police do not have sufficient proof in order to have them convicted. The two prisoners are isolated from each other, and the police visit each of them and offer a deal: the one who offers evidence against the other one will be freed. If none of them accepts the offer, they are in fact cooperating against the police, and both of them will get only a small punishment because of lack of proof. They both gain. However, if one of them betrays the other one, by confessing to the police, the defector will gain more, since he is freed; the one who remained silent, on the other hand, will receive the full punishment, since he did not help the police, and there is sufficient proof. If both betray, both will be punished, but less severely than if they had refused to talk. The dilemma resides in the fact that each prisoner has a choice between only two options, but cannot make a good decision without knowing what the other one will do.”



We play the prisoners dilemma every time we interact with another person. Do we lie? Do we cheat? Do we steal? Do we remain truthful? We decide based on a variety of factors such as what will the other person think? How well do we know them? What will they do? How will this effect future interaction with this person?



We come to virtue because it is in our own benefit. As practitioners of LETLAR, we understand that life is a marathon not a track meet. That the un-virtuous person is prosperous for only a short amount of time, while the virtuous person is prosperous for a lifetime.

We need only to understand the paradigm of the hustler and the honest man to see this illustration.

The hustler takes advantage of situations through, deception, violence, intimidation.

The honest man makes gains through generosity, empathy and integrity.

Which man would you rather do business with?

Which man will prosper longer?

Prosperity and the need for a good name in business is in your best interest and inherently selfish even if its connotation is not explicit.



LETLAR Practices generous tit-for tat.

1 Comments:

Blogger Rocketstar said...

I struggle with this one...

I don't quite get it? I understand that everything we do, does come back in some way to a "self-benefit", but beyond that, how does that apply to Morality?

6:52 PM  

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