Human Development
Self-preservation
Description:
Three paths of morality may be distinguished, each respectively treating self-preservation as of no, some or considerable importance.1. Some oriental mystical pantheism or nihilism requiring the overcoming of the individual will, its desires, and the body as bearer of these desires, together with western pessimism with the negation of the will to live, treat self-preservation as of no importance or as a positive hindrance to progress.
2. Implicit in most ethical systems, however, is the duty of preserving the physical self, of maintaining the body in health, of avoiding unnecessary risk and of self-defence against violence. Included here is the general moral and religious argument against suicide.
3. A third system, the individualistic morality which looks on morality as a product of individual selves, puts self-preservation as the highest or supreme principle. Here: (a) all so-called good actions are said, in fact, to be aimed at self-preservation; (b) the social system implies a struggle between individuals, the supreme good being, for each individual, to survive this struggle and the supreme duty to acquire the power to do so; (c) the genetic or hereditary aspect of how social morality and restraints developed are emphasized.
For this third system, the good is that which attracts the individual (whether an appetite or a desire) and evil is that which repels or causes displeasure. Since this results in an endless struggle for survival and power, there would be permanent war of all against all if reason did not demand a renunciation of the natural right to wage such an offensive so a common power may preserve order and make peace possible. If self defence is a duty then "to seek peace and follow it" is a law of nature. However, where the state seeks to take away the individual's life, the individual's duty for self-preservation implies his right to resist the state whether by legal or illegal means (Thomas Hobbes).
This philosophy of each seeking his own advantage is also inherent in the system of Spinoza, where virtue is self-expansion and attainment of positive good. Self-assertion is useful to all since a person can only be useful to another when he has something positive to offer. Again, good is relative, something is good because it is desired. The more clear and rational the self the more adequately it expresses the nature of God, since the truly conceived self is one with the nature of God. Knowing all things as modes of God and thus absolutely determined, there is no subjection to passion but joy arises in the intellectual love of God and man's highest good. Freedom from passion implies freedom from contention with others if they also recognize the natural order of things.
The biological theory of evolution lead to the contention that morality is the latest phase of life and moral law a development of general law. This is the condition of self-preservation as developed in the struggle for existence of individuals and groups. Longevity, or quantity, is of greater good than breadth, or diversity, of life; however, removal of pleasure removes value from life (Herbert Spencer). The self here is solely the product of impersonal forces beyond it; the universe determines moral conduct for man in preserving itself. For Nietzsche, the essence of each creature is the will to power, the value of life being the glory and excitement of the struggle for survival and power. Conventional morality and religion is a slave morality encouraging the weak and inferior. The impulsive self has the goal of power for power's sake.
Related:
SelfLife instinctSelf sacrifice