Self-love
SELF-LOVE
Is that instinctive principle which impels every animal, rational and irrational, to preserve its life and promote its own happiness. “It is very generally confounded with selfishness; but, perhaps, the one propensity is distinct from the other. Every man loves himself, but every man is not selfish. The selfish man grasps at all immediate advantages, regardless of the consequences which his conduct may have upon his neighbour. Self-love only prompts him who is actuated by it to procure to himself the greatest possible sum of happiness during the whole of his existence. In this pursuit, the rational self-lover will often forego a present enjoyment to obtain a greater and more permanent one in reversion; and he will as often submit to a present pain to avoid a greater hereafter.
Self-love, as distinguished from selfishness, always comprehends the whole of a man’s existence; and, in that extended sense of the phrase, every man is a self-lover; for, with eternity in his view, it is surely not possible for the most disinterested of the human race not to prefer himself to all other men, if their future and everlasting interests could come into competition. This, indeed, they never can do; for though the introduction of evil into the world, and the different ranks which it makes necessary in society, put it in the power of a man to raise himself in the present state by the depression of his neighbour, or by the practice of injustice; yet, in the pursuit of the glorious prize which is set before us, there can be no rivalship among the competitors. The success of one is no injury to another; and therefore, in this snese of the phrase, self-love is not only lawful, but absolutely unavoidable.” Self-love, however, says Jortin (ser. 13. vol. 4: ) is vicious,
1. When it leads us to judge too favourably of our faults.
2. When we think too well of our righteousness, and over-value our good actions, and are pure in our own eyes.
3. When we over-value our abilities, and entertain too good an opinion of our knowledge and capacity.
4. When we are proud and vain of inferior things, and value ourselves upon the station and circumstances in which, not our own deserts, but some other cause, has placed us.
5. When we make our worldly interest, convenience, ease or pleasure, the great end of our actions. Much has been said about the doctrine of disinterested love to God. It must be confessed, that we ought to love him for his own excellences; yet it is difficult to form an idea how we can love God unconnected with any interest to ourselves. What, indeed, we ought to do, and what we really do, or can do, is very different. There is an everlasting obligation on men to love God for what he is, however incapable of doine it; but, at the same time, our love to him is our interest; nor can we, in the present state, I think, while possessed of such bodies and such minds, love God without including a sense of his relative goodness. “We love him, ” says John, “because he first loved us.”
See LOVE.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Self Love
(in Greek, ), an element of character which is to be carefully distinguished from selfishness as being radically different, and not so in degree only. The former is demanded by the moral consciousness in man, while the latter is condemned, and the same distinction prevails in the Scriptures. The one is the basis for motives to self examination, for prudence and carefulness of life, for self renewal and improvement; the other the ground in which all works of the flesh (Gal 5:19; comp. 1Ti 6:10) are rooted.
General or philosophical ethics requires self love in the sense that each person should honor the idea of humanity or the human personality which underlies his own nature, and that he should develop it in every direction. The principle of humanity which asserts the dignity of human nature is the prevailing idea. Theological ethics treats self love as a disposition which has for its object the Christian personality, which springs from love to God and Christ, which sanctifies the Lord in the heart (1Pe 3:15), protects against all contamination of the flesh and spirit (2Co 7:1), and seeks to be renewed in the spirit of the mind (Eph 4:23) in order that we may be glorified with Christ (2Co 3:18). The regenerated personality, therefore, constitutes both subject and object in Christian self love, while, in the natural sentiment, unregenerate man is the substituted entity, and Christian self love alone is really virtuous, a personal disposition through which the Christian presents himself to God a holy, living sacrifice (Rom 12:1).
The intimate relation subsisting between self love and love to our neighbors is such that they are inseparable and mutually condition each other. Not only does love for others limit our love of self, but the egotist degrades himself in proportion as he indulges in his egotism; and no person is capable of being useful to others in his character and his life who does not in the best sense love and care for himself. Every duty to self may accordingly be viewed as duty to our neighbors, and vice versa, if care be taken to guard against the eudaemonism which is so likely to intrude.
In its manifestations Christian self love assumes a twofold character in which the negative and positive elements predominate at different times. The former element corresponds to self respect, whose influence leads the Christian to avoid everything that may wound, or in any way impair, the dignity conferred on him, and which impels him to cultivate the habit of spiritual watchfulness. Upon this ground the positive element in self love carries forward the work of renewal, including the whole of Christian development and perfection. And inasmuch as the entire man is concerned in these objects of self love, it follows that the body must share in the development and other benefits secured to the spirit, though simply as the spirit’s minister and instrument (1Th 5:23). At this point Christian self love passes over into spiritual discipline, and coincides to some extent with Christian asceticism. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Fleming, Vocab. of Philos. s.v.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Self-love
The term may be used to denote self-complacency or self-admiration (see Spinoza, Ethics, Book III, Prop. 55, note), but in ethical discussion it usually designates concern for one’s own individual interest, advantage, or happiness. Taking the term in this latter sense philosophers have debated the question whether or not all of our actions, approvals, etc., are motivated entirely by self-love. Hobbes holds that they are. Spinoza, similarity, holds that the endeavor to conserve oneself is the basis of all of one’s actions and virtues. Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Butler, and Hume, in opposition to Hobbes, argued that benevolence or sympathy and the moral sense or conscience are springs of action which are not reducible to self-love. Butler also pointed out that self-love itself presupposes the existence of certain primary desires, such as hunger, with whose satisfaction it is concerned, and which therefore cannot be subsumed under it. See Egoism. — W.K.F.