AHSS 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Unbehagen, Jeremy Rifkin, Reciprocal Altruism
18 Jun 2018
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Human Security and World Disorder January 24th 2017, Week 3
Unit 2 cont’d
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) the psychological egoist claims that people always act selfishly or in their
own self-interest.
One of the earlier advocates of this view was Hobbes who saw life as “…nasty, brutish, and
short”
Hobbes agreed with Glaucon’s (Ring of Gyges) theory of self-interest on all 3 counts: (1) humans
choose to live in a society with rules because they are concerned with their own safety and for
no other reason; (2) humans are by nature self-interested, and any show of concern for others
hides a true concern for ourselves; (3) we would be fools if we didn’t look after ourselves.
“my mother bore twins, myself and fear”
Concerned with war and peace; human nature…
The Leviathan
The “social contract”
Attempts to explain the origin and purpose of the State; and of human rights and
responsibilities.
Attempts to explain the source of authority if a King/Queen has no natural nor God-given right
to rule
Social contract theory formed a central pillar in the historically important notion that legitimate
state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed
An agreement among people to establish government and civil society
The starting point for most social contract theories is the “state of nature”
Human condition absent from any structured social order where an individual’s actions are
bound only by his or her personal power, constrained by conscience, and outside resistance.
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Raw, “pre-civil” society
Without the authority of tradition, the rule of law, and institutions (without government)
State of nature governed by “natural law”
From this imaginary starting point of social contract theorists argue why it is in an individual’s
ration self-interest to voluntarily give up the natural freedom one has in the state of nature in
order to obtain the benefits of political order.
What are you willing to sacrifice in the name of security? For Hobbes, in order to enjoy real
security in a stable society where people can live in peace and carry out fulfilling lives, it is
necessary to accept the rule of an unchallenged government, and to sacrifice all rights to resist
for challenge that government.
According to Hobbes, in the state of nature there is NO: security, prosperity, collectively acquired
knowledge. But there IS: inescapable scarcity, a constant state of war of all against all where
nothing can be unjust, “life is solidary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” we are pleasure seeking
desiring machines.
How Egoistic Are We?
We seem have a natural sense of empathy toward other humans, an ability to understand their pain and
their joy (cf. Jeremy Rifkin Empathic Civilization)
According to Peter Singer reciprocal altruism (a moderate, limited willingness to put others’ interests
ahead of your own) is a less costly and more rational response than ethical egoism.
Trustworthiness was an early social advantage favoured by natural selection. “I have your back,
if you have mine.”
Unit 3: Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents & Nietzsche’s Master and Slave Moralities
Sigmund Freud: Civilization & its Discontents
Basic drives and principles: death and sex, but it’s more than that.
Babies are born into the ID; people want fulfillment, pleasure and satisfaction, and we want it now. Go
into a world of need, lack and deprivation. With suffering comes desire. The world imposes rules and
ideals in you – “territorializes” you
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Is not suggesting we don’t need civilization, but cautions against being too civilized.
Written in 1929, published in 1930. German title: Das Unbehagen in der Kultur
Unbehagen: “malaise,” a sense of uneasiness, dissatisfaction, vague discontent
Kultur: a more encompassing term than English “civilization”; includes science, technology, art
society, etc.
Freud sees civilization as made up of all the shared human cultural achievements and
advancements intended to protect humanity against nature and “adjust their mutual
relations”
The brutality of WWI – the first technologically advanced war (use of tanks, poison gas, etc)
where trench warfare led to mass and anonymous death- generated a new sense of pessimism
about human beings and human nature as well as a kind of skepticism about modernity and the
accomplishments of civilization
Freud shares in this pessimism and anti-modernism and comes to see “civilization” as a space of
conflict, or as an extension into cultural community of the tensions that define the individual
psyche (ego vs id, pleasure vs reality principle, unconscious vs conscience mind)
Civilization, like the human mind, according to Freud, is a space of conflict, and we thus become
“civilized” at the price of sacrificing a degree of our egoistic happiness while succumbing to a
pervasive sense of guilt…
Freud expands his inquiry from the neurotic individual to the neurotic aspects of the culture
For Freud the purpose of life is the pursuit of the pleasure principle
We seek the fulfillment of our egoistic pleasure through the satisfaction of 2 basic
human pleasure seeking drives: Eros (life, love, bonding, sex, integration) and Thantos
(death, hate, fragmentation, aggression, war of all against all)
But because the external world and the demands of others interfere and prevents the
satisfaction of many of our desires (Freud’s reality principle) we also learn to take
pleasure in avoiding displeasure (e.g. ascetic life on a “monk” or a nun)
We thus learn to renounce desires or demands that cannot be met, since this
causes us less displeasure than giving in to the desire and having it left
unsatisfied
Deflections: we re-channel our desires into areas where they can more easily be
satisfied. In this category Freud includes scientific activity or other forms of
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Thomas hobbes (1588-1679) the psychological egoist claims that people always act selfishly or in their own self-interest. One of the earlier advocates of this view was hobbes who saw life as nasty, brutish, and short . Attempts to explain the origin and purpose of the state; and of human rights and responsibilities. Attempts to explain the source of authority if a king/queen has no natural nor god-given right to rule. Social contract theory formed a central pillar in the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed. An agreement among people to establish government and civil society. The starting point for most social contract theories is the state of nature . Human condition absent from any structured social order where an individual"s actions are bound only by his or her personal power, constrained by conscience, and outside resistance. Without the authority of tradition, the rule of law, and institutions (without government)
