Being good at being self-interested

            In his examples of principles that cannot be categorical imperatives such as the suicide and borrowing money cases, Kant shows that it would be inconsistent for a person to expect certain things of others while making exceptions for himself.  Through this method of thinking, rules like “don’t lie”, “repay your debts”, and other basic types of ethics rules seem to follow.  While this is very appealing, I think it still might be possible to will certain rules and principles with which Kant would be unhappy to become universal laws.

            For example, Kant tries to show that being solely self-interested is inconsistent.  However, I don’t think Kant considers the subtleties that a person who is good at being self-interested would consider.  In his fourth case, Kant says that a person cannot will that the principle of not helping others and being solely self-interested is inconsistent because such a person may one day need help also.  A smart self-interested person, however, would help others because of reciprocity.  We could look at evolution as a model; despite the fact that genes are “self-interested” in order to be passed down through generations, altruistic behavior is still seen in nature.  This is because an organism that carries out altruistic actions will generally also be the recipient of altruistic actions, increasing the reproductive fitness of the organism and resulting in a passing down of the genes.  Similarly, a smart self-interested person would consider the amount of time invested into helping other people and the return and benefit in terms of self-interest.  Of course, one would be unable to expect help outside of these types of contractual-help relationships such a universal law would engender, but some help can still be anticipated without being inconsistent.

            Therefore, a maxim such as “be solely self-interested” could be willed as a universal law without resulting in a total breakdown of promise-making, helping others, etc. and without becoming unable to expect any help at all from others if it were universally applied.  Thus, I do not think that considering whether a principle would be self-contradictory if applied universally necessarily leads to the types of moral laws or the types of motivations for doing moral actions that Kant wants.