One of Tocqueville’s main focuses was on the concept of “enlightened self-interest”. But what is self-interest? For eons, we have heard that it is not good to be selfish and that one should strive to be unselfish. Yet the very concept of being unselfish, of acting without self interest is an utter impossibility in the light of the fact that everyone of us will only do that which we believe to contribute the most to our perception of well being or happiness or that which keeps us further away

So in every conscious act, we are either moving towards that which we believe will make us happy or contribute to our well being or we are moving away from that which we believe takes away from our well being or that which we believe will makes us unhappy. All our actions then are made in view of what we believe constitutes well-being and happiness - and our personal definition of well-being and happiness of course can vary drastically from others.

Tocqueville compared the levels of self-interest of an aristocratic society and a democratic society. In an aristocracy, the nobility often speaks of forgetting oneself and working for the good of all without any hope of a reward. In a democracy, or the U.S. in this case, citizens frequently speak of self-interest; that is, they don’t talk about the sacrifice of virtue, but about how it is in everyone’s best interest to be virtuous. Thus, a noble helping a neighbor might consider this a virtuous act of self-sacrifice, whereas an American would likely consider it enlightened self-interest: if I help my neighbor, then, when I am in need, he will likely help me (unc).

Every single person without excep

Some topics in this essay:
W’s Tocqueville’s, According Tocqueville, James Madison’s, Tocqueville French, Democracy America, enlightened self-interest, American Democracy, Enlightened Self-Interest, Tocqueville Alexis, well-being happiness, civic virtue, form self-interest, alexis de, alexis de tocqueville, de tocqueville, selfishness gain,