I have increasingly become aware of a problematic way of thinking about the relation between morality and self-interest. What I have observed, from philosophers to football players, is the idea that morality and self-interest are un-related and often opposed to each other. People tend to think that in order to be morally good, we have to sacrifice our happiness and well-being. I am however convinced that if you come to understand these things more deeply, you will come to realise that being a god person and being a happy person coincide with each other.
Lets face it! People are motivated by self-interest. By this I mean that people are moved to seek what they take to be good for them. Human beings, by virtue of the fact that they are rational creatures, seek their own good. If we thought that morality is opposed to happiness and what is good for people, then you are actually placing an unreasonable request on them by asking them to be moral. Why should any rational human being seek to be good if being so is not good for them?
I, for one, do not expect such magnanimity from myself nor from anyone else. I am still however absolutely committed to trying to be a morally better person. So how does that work?
The fact that we must all come to recognise is that becoming a good person is the best way of becoming a happy person. What is truly in your best interest lies, paradoxically, in turning away from your own immediate gratification and pursuing the good of something higher than your personal agenda. Let me explain:
The first question we must ask ourselves is what does it mean to become a morally better person? Surely to become a morally better person means subordinating yourself to the requirements of what is appropriate. Becoming a morally good person involves developing a deep commitment to, and desire for, doing what is appropriate, i.e. desiring to do the right thing. This is more than just doing the right thing, it is about sincerely wanting to do the right thing. It is about becoming value-driven, i.e. being motivated to act on the basis of the value operative in the situation for the sake of being appropriate. You truly know that a person is morally good when they deliberately do what is appropriate in a situation, even when what is appropriate manifestly conflicts with what might be otherwise thought to be in their best interest, like a CEO turning down a bonus even though he could come with a story to justify taking it.
Well if this is what it means to be a morally good person, why is this good for a person? The answer to this question is quite simple but can take a life time to get right. Because it is so difficult to get right it deserves a life time worth of work trying to bring oneself to the point at which one truly desires nothing but to give each moment its due and do what is appropriate.
The simple but hard to achieve answer in this: the switch towards a genuine desire to act appropriately, instead of seeking to attain some end which furthers our agenda, facilitates a shift from outcome into process. This way of being returns one to a life lived in the moment. Generally our lives are lived from a perspective in which we are fixated on the end we want to achieve. We are fixated on some reward that sits at the end of our hard toil which we feel will make us happy.
What this does is that it robs us of the moment. We cannot enjoy and savour what we are doing because we do not value the doing, we 
value only what the doing gives us. By becoming genuinely morally good we are learning to take delight in each moment of our lives. We are learning to savour and take delight in the doing of appropriate actions. This is achieved because our attention is no longer invested in the outcome which we seek to achieve by doing whatever it is that we are doing. It is instead invested in the thing that is in front of us and this enables us to appreciate and enjoy it, whatever it is, even if it is simply doing the dishes. The skill of becoming happy is the skill of always seeking to act appropriately with regards to whatever life has put in front of us, and learning to take delight in this.
So when someone says that it is irrational to be good because it goes against their best interest. Remind them that what is truly in their best interest is actually becoming good.
Comments
5 responses to “The Truth about Morality and Self-interest”
Nice take on it. I always think of being moral as being life-giving, as opposed to life-taking. That has led me away from the pursuit of happiness, and towards the pursuit of joy. Happiness depends on many external factors, whereas joy is more self driven, coming from being in the moment. There is always joy in comforting or being comforted, but not often happiness.
Thank you William. I think these clarifications are very useful. Happiness is a very ambiguous concept. There is definitely value in exploring the different ways in which it is meant.I have often thought that the word “tranquility” is actually a nice word to describe the thing we seek.
I think what you are describing here is key! And it fits nicely with the reasoning about Unconditional giving from the Care and Growth model, which has helped me a lot – thanks!
Hi Assad, I have co-opted a currently overused and increasingly ambiguous term in the hope of preventing its further over use in the very narrow redefinition assigned to it in the academic mainstream. That term is ‘well-being’. Not the point-in-time aggregated concept that the UN adopted ‘Happiness Index’ seeks to ascribe to it. I use it to describe that continuing state of being well with the world and with oneself. Both in terms of the now, what is in one’s past and what are ones expectations of one’s future situation… all in the necessary context of an essential element of one’s own wellness lying in ones own perceptions regarding the degree to which the perception by everybody else of their own wellness is globally ubiquitous. Concisely put in my usual verbose style. :-)) My apologies!
The point I actually want to make is that what you describe and are recommending is that we must each take charge of our own epistemology.. in this case that is to decide upon our own conception of what is important for happiness, joy or well-being and what we mean by that. What you do not mention is that we have to do this in the face of the many self-interested influences in our world which seek to impose upon us those epistemic contexts designed to influence our behaviours down routes that are most likely to serve those interests at the expense of our own. It is because of this reality that I would suggest that in shaping our behaviours according to your insight we also need to do so self-consciously while actively identifying and resisting those overt influences that might inhibit us and remaining vigilant for those which are more subtle. Go well, Oom
Thank you for this input Oom, it is very useful indeed. Discover that which you are naturally constituted to do and find joy in doing it well! And resist the pressure to place value on what does not truly accord with our character.