Thursday, February 5, 2009

The anomaly of self interest

I am baffled by an anomaly about which I’ve been thinking of since a pretty long time. It is related to the classes that are taken in hostel common rooms during exams by some of our friends who are good in those subjects. Raju Sir taught us that people are moved by their self interest while undertaking any transaction. If we see the people present in such classes, then of course the students who come to attend such classes are moved by their self interest. But what about our friends who take the task of teaching in these classes. Are they moved by any self interest?
Someone may say that they want to earn the goodwill of their friends. But given the tremendous time constraint each one of us have during exams, i don’t think that anyone will do that for earning goodwill during exam time. Someone else may say that the students who teach will gain as the process of teaching will make their concepts more clear. But i think that the person will gain more by revising in his room than by teaching others during exams. Likewise each one of us may come up with n number of reasons but in the given context, i think that the person who is teaching will gain the most by doing self study than by teaching others.
But then he is not motivated by his self interest because he is doing something which is not in his self interest. And this is the anomaly that has been baffling me for sometime.
Then what it is? I think that there is more than self interest which makes a human being to do something (think about things that you did without thinking of your self interest). And although self interest may be the most frequent and dominating factor towards most of the human moves, it is not the only one. And it is this ‘other’ thing which humans keep on searching among their fellow human beings.

4 comments:

Bhardwaj said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bhardwaj said...

you remembered what was taught by raju sir that self interest and blah blah...., but you forgot what he taught in the second lecture that whatever happens is a matter of perception. when you are standing out of the room as an audience i.e. neither a teacher nor as a student then you can say that the person who is teaching is moved by self interest. but when you are sitting in the common room as a teacher or as a student then only you will try to manipulate your self interest as goodwill r something else with some solid justification. yes it is always a matter of perception and that is baffling you.

Joseph Kalassery said...

deepak, nice question...

i think i take a class bcos of 3 reasons:-

1) i would like to show-off my knowledge even though i project myself as being modest.

2) i think i have responsibility to all others who have helped me with the subjects which i'm weak at.

3) i believe it is a win-win model. i think i have better concepts bcos i have attended others classes nd they benefit by attending my classes. so self-interest is also a part along with collective interest.

thanks

EquityForLife said...

We can also talk abt self actualisation concept here, as we have studied in IGB first term People that have reached self-actualization are characterized by certain behaviors.
Common traits amongst people that have reached self-actualization are as follows: They embrace reality and facts rather than denying truth, they are spontaneous, they are interested in solving problems and finally, they are accepting of themselves and others and lack prejudice.

I believe this could be one of the reasons for your question.