In Defense Of Instinct

– Hobbesian Egoism Essay, Research Paper

In Defense of Instinct – Hobbesian egoism1. What is Hobbesian egoism .First, let me explain what I mean by Hobbesianegoism. Egoism is of course the view that the onlything we ought to do is serve our own self-interest. Hobbesian indicates _what is regarded to be in ourinterests_: physical survival, material comforts,abundant sexual gratification, etc. Hobbesian egoismmay be profitably contrasted with the egoism ofAristotle or Rand, which hold that what constitutesour self-interest is much richer and deeper. Rand implicitly contrasts her view with that of Hobbeswhen she writes that It [the survival of man qua man]does not mean a _momentary_ or merely _physical_survival of a mindless brute, waiting for another bruteto crush his skull. It does not mean the momentaryphysical survival of a crawling aggregate of muscleswho is willing to accept any terms, obey any thug andsurrender any values, for the sake of what is knownas survival at any price, which may or may not last aweek or a year. Man s survival qua man means theterms, methods, conditions and goals required for thesurvival of a rational being through the whole of hislifespan — in all of those aspects of existence whichare open to his choice. Partly, Rand is stating thatwe should look to our _long-term_ rather than our_short-term_ interest (which the Hobbesian egoistwould not necessarily disagree with), but partly she isstating that e.g. only a rational, purposeful, anddignified existence can _constitute_ our self-interest. What practical difference does this distinction make. For one, the Hobbesian egoist would remorselesslykill or enslave another person if the risks were lowand the gain were large. For the Randian egoist,however, this predatory lifestyle would conflict withour interest in being productive, independent, andjust individuals. The Hobbesian egoist, similarly,would happily steal if the gain were large and thepunishment were small; but the Randian egoist wouldrefrain. 2. The PuzzleThe behavior counselled by Hobbesian egoism iswidely condemned by most historical moral codes. The puzzle that I see is that it is neverthelessextremely common. Belief in Christian ethics couldexplain why Christians would try to murder Muslims oratheists; but how Christian ethics would justifyenslaving or enserfing other Christians is difficult tosee. And yet, throughout the entire period ofChristian dominance in Western culture, slavery andserfdom and wars of conquest upon fellow Christianswere extremely common. Of course some cultures moral codes endorsedslavery and wars upon foreigners. The puzzle, as Isee it, is that this kind of behavior has been extremelycommon in almost _all_ historical societies,regardless of their announced moral views. Thus,while Marxist theory could easily justify murderingmillions of people with a bourgeois background, it isunclear how Marxist theory would justify comfortablelifestyles, limosines, and caviar for the ruling elite. And yet, every Marxist dictatorship that I ve everheard of swiftly developed the latter. Primitivedespotisms of China or Egypt justified the ruler s lifeof comfort and luxury by arguing that the ruler wasdivine; but comfort and luxury for rulers seemscommon in societies with announced egalitarianvalues. Why is people s behavior so similar whentheir conscious convictions vary so widely. Why, inshort, is altruistic moral theory almost alwaysaccompanied by hypocrisy.My answer is simply that we have an instinct, aninnate predisposition, towards Hobbesian behavior. Why do I think that it is innate.(1) Hobbesian behavior is common in human beingsin all societies and times. To prove this would take agreat deal of work; a good start is _The ColumbiaHistory of the World_, which details mankind s sordidhistory of using one another as beasts of burdenwhenever it was convenient. (2) Hobbesian behavior is common regardless of asociety s cultural background. Primitive Mongols moral values probably did not discourage them fromkilling and enslaving Christians; but Christians moralvalues probably did discourage them from doing so. And yet, both of them did it, and it is hardly clear thatChristians did so less eagerly than anyone else. (3) Most importantly, there is our evolutionarybackground. Animals which don t try to survive tendto die off, leaving no offspring. Animals which do tryto survive tend to live longer and leave moreoffspring. Every other animal species seems to havedeveloped this self-interested instinct extremely well;and surely with animals at least, their behavior isinstinctive. Why should this instinct, this innatepredisposition, be any weaker in human beings. This is especially clear when we note that the primaryexception to pure self-interested behavior is the carethat animals and humans give to their blood relatives;and it is precisely this exception that evolutionarytheory would predict. (See Dawkins _The SelfishGene_.) 3. Answering Eyala. Eyal mentions that if my view were true, thenprimitive societies would concentrate _more_ onsurvival (and their kin s survival) than modernWestern people do. And indeed, I think this is so:primitive people worked far harder to survive (often16 hours per day, I ve read) than we do, and spent

much less time on leisure. Maybe they worked sohard because they had to just to survive; but that ishardly evidence that they were less concerned abouttheir survival than we are. But I can make my point much more