A similar problem arises for those like Rawls who seek to base the social contract on some modification of self-interested behaviour such as self-interest behind the veil of ignorance.
It views corporate social responsibility and such as self-interest in disguise.
It was a remarkable mutation, described brilliantly by Albert O. Hirschman in "The Passions and the Interests" (Princeton, 1977): Greed disappeared and was reborn, domesticated, as self-interest.
He said all leaders must speak against violence and extremism out of obligation to United Nations norms as well as self-interest.
It is easy to dismiss as self-interest the claims from more than 500 business people that the 50p tax rate is damaging the economy.
Didn't this stage management -- implying a parity to prove existence of a parity -- invite the judges to flavor their deliberations with such extraneous issues as self-interest, etiquette and diplomacy?
Under rulers like Frederick William (the Great Elector, 1640-88) and Frederick the Great (1740-86), the modest state of Brandenburg played a weak hand brilliantly, selling its favors to the highest bidder, fighting or remaining neutral as self-interest demanded, arranging advantageous dynastic marriages and gradually acquiring coveted parcels of territory, including the Duchy of Prussia.
The actresses are especially memorable, notably Akie Namiki as Hiroko Nagata, a militant horror show who, with cat-sly looks and smiles, reveals the human frailties that pitched comrade against comrade, as self-interest trumped self-criticism and became self-annihilation.
In a later laboratory experiment, Burton and Obel (1988) included opportunism, which Williamson defines as self-interest seeking with guile (1975: 26).
A rational will that is merely bound by universal laws could act accordingly from natural and non-moral motives, such as self-interest.
Critics argue that it is not necessary to take pleasure in doing wrong to perform an evil action since it is sufficient to intentionally cause significant harm for an unworthy goal such as self-interest (Calder 2013).
