“Let me say one more thing about the issue of selfishness – the virtue of selfishness – and the vice of altruism. Ayn Rand might never forgive me for saying this, but if you take the two concepts – ethical self-interest and concern for others – to their logical conclusions, they actually are the same. It's in your selfish best interest to provide the maximum amount of value to the maximum number of people – that's how Apple became the giant company it is. Conversely, it is not altruistic to help other people. I want all the people around me to be strong and successful. It makes life better and easier for me if they're all doing well. So it's selfish, not altruistic, when I help them.”
I think there’s some truth to that, and yet selfishness and altruism are not the same, nor are dark and light, good and bad, up and down. It’s quite possibly not in my self-interest to give up my life for another, unless you redefine “self-interest”, is it? “Self-interest” is very close to “self-preservation”, and I can hardly be said to be “preserving myself” by giving up my life, without redefining “self”. If we consider self to be my human life, then it is not. We would need to say “self” is my eternal self. Then we could argue that it might be possible to “serve myself” by “denying myself.” But then we are dealt a paradox that it required Jesus to rectify for us.
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