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Originally Posted by jwb
I agree... Also I feel like defining selfishness in such a way that it refers to any and all behavior in and of itself makes the term fairly useless in the context of human behavior. It only carries meaning as a term when there is something to contrast it to. I think defining it so broadly really sacrifices any true insight you can derive from a statement like selfishness is the root of all evil if it's being presented as the driving force behind all behavior. It's like saying being alive is the root of all evil.
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As a biologist I don't think he's referring to selfishness in the moral sense but "selfishness" as a word in the English language being used as well as it can to refer to a self-preservation instinct.