Theory that we do everything for our own benefit

Question

Are there any popular theories or principles that answer this question: Do all actions proceed from a need to satisfy one's own personal discontent?

In the future I want to study theoretical physics. I don't do this to benefit people, but to satisfy my own curiosity. I don't see any intrinsic value in this, it's just what I feel most compelled to do.

Elaborating on this I thought of other actions, such as helping someone else. This action, in my experience, stems from the aspect of someone feeling personal distress from the immediate connections you establish, relatability, etc.

Are there any established theories that expand on this idea?

Answer 1

The theories you are looking for, my friend, are able to be found to some extent in at least two thinkers. The first is David Hume. The second is Ludwig von Mises. David Hume held that all activity spawns from a subjective motivational set of internal attitudes, passions, and sentiments, and that since action, strictly speaking, is divorced from reason, insofar as action is reason instrumentalized upon one's subjective motivational set. Mises conceived of praxeology, the deductive study of human action, by which synthetic a priori truths may be derived from the Misesian action axiom that humans act, which implies the existence of many things, but with respect to motivation it implies the existence of subjective value-preferences, value-functions, time-preference and discount rates for preference-satisfactions, etc.

Answer 2

The closest match is probably the Utilitarian ethical theory called "Enlightened Self Interest". The basic idea is that we act ethically once we learn it is in our own self-interest to promote the interests of others.

Answer 3

Schopenhauer's 'Will to Live', which Westernizes the Buddhist notion of suffering through attachment, seems closest, especially if you focus on discontent.

The thread of Buddhism he taps into is less resigned to the world's power over humans. It has a goal of escape. So it suggests we have the alternative of not being driven by these forces, but overcoming them instead.

The flow of reasoning he pulls this into comes out of Epicurus and feeds back into Nietzsche and Freud. So the rest of the stream around him on the Western side emphasizes positive emotions over negative ones.

Answer 4

You might appreciate Professor John R. Searle's thoughts on "desire independent reasons for action" from chapter 6 in his book "Rationality in Action". The entire book is available online if you modify the end of the embedded URL - there are 9 chapters total (e.g. http...chap1.pdf, http...chap9.pdf). In short, he would argue in response to your question:

Do all actions proceed from a need to satisfy one's own personal discontent?

...that no, not all actions proceed from this purported need. I might also contend that you consider what is meant by need as, biologically, needs consist of air, water, food, shelter from inclement weather and arguably companionship at a minimum for the raising of humans from a helpless infancy. I think the sense of "need" you have offered is on the other hand, psychological.

To Searle's point, it is worth distinguishing what is rational and what may simply be a rationalization when doing something one does not find personally beneficial.

Answer 5

It has been my opinion that everyone acts in their own self-interest – or at least they do as far as they perceive it. The more relevant differentiation then is whether or not that perception or the individual's interpretation of that perception is thus rational.

As an example, I point out that someone who holds esteem for a faith-based belief that is predominantly (alleged to be) altruistic, will act according to how they perceive the belief, or perceive the extensions from it's dogma, to expect them to behave. In this case, even if the actions appear to be selfless in nature (altruistic), the reasoning for undertaking said actions extends from the individual's desire to conform with the belief or dogma.

I extend this further to belief in general, especially mystical belief in 'god' entities to suggest a filter to rational evaluation and esteem – what I refer to as god esteem (as opposed to self esteem). It is a conceptual collection of ideas that places itself between the individual and their own rational self-interest in that every evaluation of some thing or act as having to be subject to the suffix 'according to god'. (feel free to insert your own object of worship or arbitrary esteem for 'god')

In other words, the evaluation of self-interest then becomes subject to something being good 'according to god' or something to be right 'in the eyes of god' and so on. Consequently, it is one of the reasons I see 'faith based' ideas of any kind as fundamentally evil – because they either seek to or ultimately exist as an impediment that exists in man's mind between his rational faculties and his own rational self-interest.