Selfishness and Firstness

Advocates of 'Selfishness' rarely distinguish between two varieties--Psychological and Moral. According to the former, an organism can act only in its own interest, i. e. apparent other-oriented behavior always has an ulterior selfish motive. According to the latter, one can ultimately promote the interests of others, but one should not. Now, though Smith does not explicitly address the distinction, his advocacy is arguably of the Moral variety, since he does recognize the capacity of humans to be motivated by Sympathy. Likewise, the general tenor of contemporary Capitalist rhetoric suggests that it follows Smith in this respect. But, regardless of the differences between the two varieties, they are both ill-formed. For, as can be easily observed in ordinary experience, choices are not constrained by a Self-Other mutual exclusivity, but range over a continuum of possibilities, awaiting a determination of an ordering of priorities. So, without distorting that context, in actual selfish behavior, whether instinctive or elective, one's own interests are set as first, without precluding the possibility that the interests of another can, at the same time, without conflict, be set as, and acted upon as, second, etc. Thus, contemporary advocates of 'Selfishness' corrupt this familiar characteristic of everyday experience into a fictitious Political antagonism.