One thing missing from this discussion (I may have missed it) is that self interest is not necessarily a bad thing.
I accept the premise that we always act in our own self interest, even when we do good for others. Even if I do good for the wrong reason, I have still done good. I define good as attempting to advance myself and my society so that more people have the opportunity to create happiness for themselves. Evil I define as acting in one’s (or noone’s) self interest with disregard for the outcomes to others rights, privileges, property. I’d include feelings, but there are some people whose feelings should be disregarded, but not because we want them to feel bad.
In trying to create a world where people can be happy, I feel much better about the world as well as my self. Atruism can then be defined as a measure of how much effort a person can put in to making the world a better place AND taking care of themselves as well. There is no point in having a better world if we are going to be miserable doing it.
The thing I resent about definitions of altruism that define our self interest as outside it, is that it then makes it impossible to achieve, and a blunt instrument on anyone who tries to have some spark of generosity toward others.
To redefine it in useful terms then, altruism is the extent to which we try to help others along with ourselves. The good we do for others may far outweigh the good we do for ourselves. I’m a results oriented guy. If, at the end of the day, the world is a better place on my account, I’m happy.
