On selfishness and FOSS

Article inspired by Swapnil Bhartiya's article in Muktware magazine.
http://www.muktware.com/3695/linux-and-foss-are-extremely-selfish-its-ok-be-selfish

"All good work starts when the developer has to scratch his own itch" Eric S. Raymond

A few days ago, Linus Torvalds was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize and a check for 600 thousand euros. In an interview with the BBC, Linus stated that the idea of ​​open source was that it would allow everyone to be "selfish" and not try to make everyone contribute to the common good. Shortly afterwards, journalist Carla Schroder wrote an article on lxer.com, criticizing the use of the term "selfish" and taking it as an insult to the thousands of free software developers.

I think the controversy lies in what the term "selfish" means to us. Let's see if with this example I clarify things a bit. Suppose you leave the house and help an old man cross the street. If I asked why you did it, you would probably say "Because the old man needed help." But if I asked you about what he did to help the old man, you will surely tell me «Because me makes it feel good that yo do something to make someone else's life better. "

Attention to the words "me" and "me". They are words that are within that reason. YOUR you do good because doing it TE you feel better. That is to be human. Humans are driven by that "me."

This reminds me of something I saw in a philosophy class when Emanuel Kant's "Foundations of Metaphysics" was given. Kant said in that book that goodwill was a will that work of dutyThat is, not out of interest, or out of inclination, or out of desire. To act out of duty was to act out of reverence or respect for the moral law that the will gives itself. One works "out of duty" when his performance it does not pursue any particular interest, nor is it the result of an inclination or a desire, but is motivated solely by reverence or respect for the moral law, regardless of whether their actions may have positive or negative consequences for their person. Any other reason for the same act is considered «Selfishness»According to Kant.

In other words: If there were a moral law (yours or collective) that says that you have to help the elderly to cross the street, and you help the elderly, not because it makes you feel good to do so but because you are obliged to comply with that moral law, there you would be acting out of good will and not out of selfishness.

Now, just as the chaff must be separated from the wheat, you have to separate selfishness from greed. It is one thing to contribute out of your own free will as long as you have control over your machine and another is the same but in order to take control over your machine. That last is greed. Also in the interview, Linus says that the "selfish" reasons of each they don't need to have to do with a financial reward.

Anyway. This is my humble opinion. Let's see if I repeat the success that my previous article had (che elav, do you think it's okay to close the comments on that article? I say to end the discussion).

BBC interview with Linus:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18419231

Carla Schroder's Article:
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/168555/index.html


18 comments, leave yours

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  1.   dwarf said

    Well, in fact, you do not lack reason, in fact, within the same free software we are all selfish when helping, many times helping a project grow comes with the intention of using it to produce or do whatever you want with the future and that is perfectly acceptable.

    Another example; I release the code of my program, it is free ... many liked the program and several think they can improve it. They improve it, they publish the improvements and I take those improvements, I include them in my program and being free I can use them as I like. And everything ends up being something that does not harm anyone simply because I gave my code, they improved it and now I use the improvements, but in the long run, everyone can ...

    What's more, sometimes that selfishness occurs when you do the program to simply become famous, you don't want to earn money with it, but rather a reputation to have a fatter resume ...

    There are so many interpretations that they do not necessarily make the term "selfish" a bad term, although as you say, not to be confused with greed, which is something else.

    1.    Azazel said

      Praised be urban thinkers and philosophers. (I don't mean sarcasm)

    2.    Ares said

      The definition of good or bad depends on the morality of society and of each person, therefore it cannot be objectively concluded that selfishness is good bad, or "not necessarily" good or bad.

      What must be clear is that selfishness only seeks its own good at any price, does not consider and does not look for the good of others, which implies that if to achieve that personal good it is necessary to charge the good of others, it is done, like this whether consciously or unconsciously (since that good is not thought of). If by a selfish act someone else's good is achieved, that was not the main objective but an unintended collateral effect or a utilitarian secondary objective.

      Based on the above and without leaving aside any point, each person could subjectively determine whether selfishness is good or bad according to the morality that surrounds it.

  2.   Jean ventura said

    As you say, Mrs. Carla is not understanding the concept. Being selfish does not imply limiting the potential of an idea, nor does it imply harming others for personal gain.

  3.   Merlin The Debianite said

    I share the opinion since being selfish I do something for myself, for myself benefits, to earn ME, or feel good, and that selfishness does not always have to harm others on the contrary if I do something good to feel good, I am motivating another that also for that same selfish reason to feel good, do that same action when seeing my example since doing good for me went well.

    What's more, we share code in the hope that someone will improve it and thus improve the program that I create.

    The problem is that many misinterpret the words, but not even the Bible mentions that you should not be selfish, no commandment says: Do not be selfish.
    So selfishness is not bad; bad is greed accompanied by selfishness.

  4.   jamin samuel said

    Fully understood the article

  5.   Frenchman said

    I fully agree on the separation of selfishness from greed, in fact the maximum expression of this morality in GNU / Linux is the "bugtrackers":

    - I report a bug because it bothers ME in the tools I use.

    And it should not be taken as a bad thing, the fact that it is open means that "thanks to selfishness" of all we make it advance by leaps and bounds.

  6.   rudolph alexander said

    haha just look at what Linus said to Nvidia haha ​​this good envy as I say I have never been a wise company in terms of development, greetings.

    1.    diazepam said

      I have a wallpaper from that moment

  7.   pandev92 said

    I don't see anything wrong with what linus said, just everyone contributes to the SL for their own interests, for example red hat contributes to the linux kernel because they use it and it suits them and so on.

    1.    jamin samuel said

      EXACT !!!

      talk no more ... that's the general example of everything.

      😉

  8.   Lucasmatias said

    Okay…. I want that check 😀

  9.   Ares said

    Clearly the example you give is selfish, that at first glance many people think of it as non-selfish is something else, either because the action predisposes to think that the motivation was altruistic or that in many other cases in that action the motive is really altruistic . Now that there is selfishness in many actions that apparently are not, it does not mean that everything has and should have a selfish background.

    It gives the impression (and I'm not saying it just because of this article and its comments) that since Torvalds propagandized selfishness, who knows if because he really thinks like this or simply by saying the first thing he invented to sound controversial and attract attention; now it is fashionable to apologize for selfishness, justify it and even find a way to make it fit in order to prove that selfishness is the force that moves the world.

    And since they are in a plan of philosophizing and that they talk about greed, greed is not just wanting to take away from something? Or wanting wealth. Greed is "wanting excessively" good things for yourself. It could be said that Torvalds made the kernel out of greed because he wanted to have more (all) control over his machine (honestly I don't know why they related greed to having less of something) and thus it is possible that he can get the greed out of many other apparently "non-greedy" examples.

    I also suspect that if Linus instead of "egotism" had said "greed" the justifications and scorn would be reversed.

    1.    Ares said

      Something that he forgot to say, which could be a corollary of the above.

      Many "good deeds" can be caused by selfishness. That does not have to make selfishness good, but rather make that action not good. It seems that now we are seeking to conclude the first and discard the second.

      And another corollary is that selfishness and greed always seem to go hand in hand.

      1.    diazepam said

        1) In the article that inspired me there are 2 more examples but I did not put them because I doubted them.
        http://www.muktware.com/3695/linux-and-foss-are-extremely-selfish-its-ok-be-selfish

        2) If it's about who should have control over my machine, what is greed? That the control is me or the operating system that I installed on my machine?

        3) Good that I quoted Kant, because if I quoted Ayn Rand it would have been too radical an opinion.

  10.   garmandoj said

    Once I heard something that well defines selfishness as the engine of humanity:
    Faced with extreme cold, the idiot takes off his coat to give it to someone else and ends up dying of cold himself; the miser is left shivering with his coat on and does not give it to anyone; the selfish, lights a very big fire just because HE is cold, but everyone can shelter around that fire, including those who called the guy who did not give away his jacket but did nothing to light the fire selfish.

    I don't care what reasons led someone to light the fire if I too can benefit from it. and ultimately my interest in protecting myself from the cold with someone else's fire also responds to selfish interests (calming MY own cold)

  11.   Lex.RC1 said

    Good article ... Egoism is inexorably tied to our maturity from the first moment we make a choice, and we make the choice out of convenience based on our needs or needs.

  12.   Lex.RC1 said

    "Based on our DESIRES or needs." I wanted to say 😉