Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:51:00.037Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cui bono? Selfish goals need to pay their way

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

David Spurrett*
Affiliation:
Philosophy, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4041, South Africa. spurrett@ukzn.ac.zahttp://ukzn.academia.edu/DavidSpurrett

Abstract

The target article falls short of explaining the phenomena, including motivational conflict, that it sets out to. The two main reasons for this are: (1) It is unclear in what sense goals are “selfish”; (2) We need an account of how selfish goals motivate people. If selfish goals are not in the replication business, then what is in it for them? And if they do not offer people something that they want, how do they ever influence what people do?

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainslie, G. (1992) Picoeconomics: The strategic interaction of successive motivational states within the person. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kable, J. W. & Glimcher, P. W. (2007) The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice. Nature Neuroscience 10(12):1625–33.Google Scholar
Levy, D. J. & Glimcher, P. W. (2012) The root of all value: A neural common currency for choice. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 22:1027–38.Google Scholar
Maynard-Smith, J. (1982) Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shizgal, P. (2012) Scarce means with alternative uses: Robbins' definition of economics and its extension to the behavioral and neurobiological study of animal decision making. Frontiers in Neuroscience 6(20). doi: 10.3389/fnins.2012.00020.Google Scholar