Each man for himself seems to reign supreme, individual performance prevails over group success, personal development is universal law.
And everyone to deplore in his corner the end of the collective.
However, the current health crisis forces us to think (also) of the other: confinement, mask and probably vaccine aim as much to protect the individual as the community.
So… Selfish or altruistic, man?
Read also:
Ego-mania: surviving the era of self-promotion
"It is an old debate which fascinates and opposes thinkers, since always and particularly from the 17th century
, observes the philosopher Michel Terestchenko, author of the book
Les Scrupules de Machiavelli
(JC Lattès).
La Rochefoucauld thus writes in his
Maxims
that the nature of man is to “love only oneself and consider only oneself”.
But Adam Smith argues in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
that we are not moved by one motive but by two: self-love and sympathy. "
Who is right and who is wrong?
Can science close the debate?
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