Moral Sentiments and Self-Interest Reconsidered

Abstract

In this paper, the concepts of moral sentiments and self-interest , as conceptualized by Adam Smith, will be reconsidered with respect to their capacity to bring about “fair and reasonable” social decisions. The well-known Prisoner’s Dilemma and a “new” variable-sum game called Volunteer’s Dilemma are chosen to illustrate the problem and to discuss solutions. The results are presented in Sections 3 and 4 of this paper. In the concluding section, the problematique of symmetry, inherent to the analysed decision situations and proposed solution concepts, will be reconsidered. First, however, definitions of moral sentiments and self- interest seem to be in place. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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