Philosopher David Stove writes: There is a perennial human type to whom this belief [that no one ever acts intentionally except from motives of self-interest] is peculiarly and irresistibly congenial. It is almost never a woman. It is the kind of man who is deficient in generous or even disinterested impulses himself, and knows it, but keeps up his self-esteem by thinking that everyone else is really in the same case. He prides himself on having the perspicacity to realise, what most people disguise even from themselves, that everyone is selfish, and on having the uncommon candour not to
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