Self-interest and the limits of morality

Abstract

This article analyzes self-interested behavior and the moral demands of alterity. It critiques attempts to explain how concern for the "other" emerges from inherently self-interested agents. A resolution to this impasse is proposed through Aristotelian eudaimonic ethics, the central mechanism of which is the distinction between means and ends: while potential conflict occurs in the competition for resources, happiness as an end is not mutually exclusive. From this perspective, the problem of self-interest is reinterpreted as a matter of political maturity: "tyrannical" behavior is the result of a lack of self-control, classified as a pre-ethical and immature stage. Ethics, therefore, presupposes self-control, which allows the agent to define their interests in accordance with reason. The article concludes that self-mastery overcomes the self-other dichotomy because self-interest is inscribed within the horizon of the political community, where the individual good and the common good overlap.