self-interested
Adjective
Meaning
Particularly concerned for one's own interest or happiness.
Source: Webster's dictionaryAlternative names
self interested
Synonyms
Antonyms
Show all antonymsRelated terms
Examples
Legal behavior is not incompatible with rational, self-interested behavior.
"Globalism" is often the most self-interested and "nationalist" thing you can do. It has been a bonanza to the United States, for sure. In capitalism, your narrowest interests are advanced by cooperation. A genius system.
Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.
And as far as doing God's work, I think the bankers who took government money and then gave out obscene bonuses are the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple.
Evolutionary psychologists seem to want to unmask our noblest motives as ultimately self-interested - to show that our love for children, compassion for the unfortunate and sense of justice are just tactics in a Darwinian struggle to perpetuate our genes.
Hollywood wants its heroes to be virtuous, but it defines virtue in a way that excludes any action that is self-interested. If virtue means putting others ahead of self, then it's clear that most people, let alone most capitalists, aren't very virtuous.