Londoniyyah - Part 20 - Ethical Egoism (2022-03-16) ​

0:00:08 and welcome to this new session we're
0:00:10 going to be talking about egoism today
0:00:11 so before we start in sha allah
0:00:13 let's hear the poem being read in arabic
0:00:16 and then we'll come back and speak about
0:00:17 it
0:00:28 is
0:00:42 so i want to ask you a question just to
0:00:43 get started let's let's keep this uh
0:00:47 interactive we'll start with this
0:00:49 question and at home you're going to be
0:00:51 thinking about this question as well
0:00:53 this is actually i'm going to give you a
0:00:55 quote from david hume
0:00:58 he says
0:00:59 if you ask a man why he hates pain
0:01:02 he cannot answer
0:01:03 okay meaning this is inexplicable this
0:01:06 is the base this is
0:01:08 so uh self-evident that it does not
0:01:10 require elaboration to what extent do
0:01:13 you agree with this speak to the person
0:01:15 next to you
0:01:16 you think about it at home we'll come
0:01:17 back and speak about it
0:01:19 go ahead
0:01:22 all right guys uh
0:01:23 let's get some
0:01:25 some contributions maybe uh actually
0:01:28 let's start with you two you were
0:01:29 talking uh yeah so david hume is saying
0:01:31 that if he was to ask a person why he
0:01:32 hates pain he cannot answer
0:01:34 i would disagree with this because a
0:01:36 person would be able to answer by saying
0:01:38 that the reason i hate pain is because
0:01:40 my body's made this way because of my
0:01:42 biological makeup because i have neurons
0:01:44 which fire based on these you know uh
0:01:48 right so i he wouldn't disagree with all
0:01:50 that
0:01:51 he that's not his
0:01:52 that's not his point he's saying that
0:01:56 ask a child
0:01:57 let's put this let's put it in that
0:01:58 language right if you know get one year
0:02:00 old
0:02:01 and prick the one-year-old
0:02:03 and see what the one-year-old does
0:02:05 what do you think the owner is going to
0:02:06 do start crying right yeah so is that an
0:02:09 expression of uh
0:02:10 what is that expression of
0:02:12 satisfaction with the satisfaction
0:02:14 when someone cried right
0:02:16 so it's good it's as good as i'm saying
0:02:17 i don't like this right yeah exactly so
0:02:19 can they tell you the neurons
0:02:21 no but they would say something like
0:02:23 this doesn't feel good right
0:02:26 yeah so why not
0:02:27 why'd you no but this is the answer why
0:02:29 did you not like it yeah yeah so he
0:02:31 would say because it doesn't feel good
0:02:32 but at least he's answering the question
0:02:33 right
0:02:34 right see this this is the point when
0:02:36 he's making that it's inexplicable it's
0:02:38 self-evident it's only circulating like
0:02:41 now go ahead
0:02:42 you're on the right tracks it's good
0:02:43 you're trying to be skeptical but this
0:02:44 is
0:02:45 it's a very difficult one to be
0:02:46 skeptical about right go
0:02:48 ahead i'm just going to say can you only
0:02:50 argue from like a circular kind of point
0:02:53 i don't like it because i don't like it
0:02:54 no it's just not this is not morality
0:02:56 he's not saying it's not good because
0:02:57 it's the way you are okay he's just
0:03:00 saying you don't like it you don't feel
0:03:01 you don't i'm saying yeah yeah
0:03:04 do you have anything
0:03:05 um just
0:03:07 it's not
0:03:08 inherently
0:03:10 pleasing you know it's just not
0:03:13 it's just completely opposite to ours
0:03:16 goes against like the fifth yeah yeah
0:03:18 there you have it right yeah
0:03:19 right okay so it's it's against an
0:03:21 inclination that we have yeah this is we
0:03:24 don't even require justification for it
0:03:26 if i put a candle on this table
0:03:29 and i put my hand on it i don't need to
0:03:31 philosophize why i don't want to put my
0:03:32 hand on the candle
0:03:34 so this is it's instinct it's
0:03:36 instinctual
0:03:37 would you say a priori
0:03:40 no because it's not rational remember we
0:03:42 differentiated in epistemology lesson
0:03:44 between what's instinct
0:03:46 yeah and what's rationalizable okay this
0:03:49 this actually does go back to the
0:03:50 epistemology thing
0:03:52 any points here
0:03:55 we just said
0:03:58 pain in itself nobody likes it and we
0:04:00 agree with the with the premise yeah
0:04:03 i find it hard when i was when i read
0:04:05 the first time right i wasn't gonna
0:04:07 attack it too much because i thought
0:04:09 this is true like yeah you know base
0:04:11 baseline pain and pleasure is
0:04:14 practically out you could you can make a
0:04:16 very strong event intuitive or at least
0:04:18 instinctual you can make this argument
0:04:21 because the assumptions sometimes it's
0:04:22 not right because sometimes it does yeah
0:04:25 there's no assumption here but it's not
0:04:26 an argument being made right
0:04:28 we're saying that
0:04:30 we have to differentiate between two
0:04:31 things and we're gonna do we're gonna do
0:04:32 so more so in this lesson yeah
0:04:35 we have to differentiate between
0:04:36 psychological
0:04:37 makeup
0:04:38 and ethical
0:04:40 standards so remember how do we get from
0:04:42 psychological to ethical
0:04:44 how do we get from
0:04:46 is to ought
0:04:49 how do we do that
0:04:52 it used to be
0:04:54 morality
0:05:06 how do you identify a moral claim
0:05:08 how do you know if someone's making a
0:05:10 moral claim
0:05:12 if there's a should in there yeah or
0:05:14 should it right wrong
0:05:16 if these keywords are not there it's not
0:05:18 a moral claim
0:05:20 we have to be careful because we could
0:05:22 be attacking something which doesn't
0:05:23 require
0:05:24 attack
0:05:26 you know
0:05:28 you can't say well you're making an
0:05:29 assumption when the person's not even
0:05:30 making an argument
0:05:31 in ethics you only start making an
0:05:33 argument when you're when you start
0:05:34 using terms of
0:05:36 moralizing terms this is very important
0:05:38 uh you know if you don't know this put
0:05:40 this down somewhere and what are the key
0:05:43 terms that we're talking about right
0:05:45 wrong
0:05:46 is oh yeah sorry noise right wrong
0:05:48 should shouldn't
0:05:51 yeah
0:05:52 you should do this you shouldn't do that
0:05:54 now you're telling me what i should do
0:05:56 now you're moralizing okay but if i say
0:05:59 to you you are like this you are not
0:06:01 like this i'm not moralizing
0:06:03 i'm telling you
0:06:05 what you're about alright on that point
0:06:08 and this is an important segue
0:06:13 yes um
0:06:15 just just i don't know just
0:06:17 brainstorming but like
0:06:18 what if you ask a man like why he loves
0:06:20 pain
0:06:21 so for example there are some people who
0:06:22 actually love pain right like is this is
0:06:24 that pain anymore is it yeah
0:06:26 look that then he's asked the right
0:06:28 question he's asked the right question
0:06:30 if you love it
0:06:32 then does it become pain because you've
0:06:34 now used the term that indicates
0:06:36 your affinity towards it if you use the
0:06:37 word love for you
0:06:39 that's it it's no longer it's not it's
0:06:40 no longer a pure pain
0:06:42 we're talking about pain there's purity
0:06:45 where there is no
0:06:47 enjoyment or anything like
0:06:48 a sadistic person or a masochist or i
0:06:51 don't know these kind of things they
0:06:52 don't apply here because they enjoy it
0:06:54 somehow
0:06:56 there's some people sexually they like
0:06:57 these kinds of pains and these kind of
0:06:59 things
0:07:00 you love it
0:07:02 no but it's not clearly that's not you
0:07:04 know
0:07:05 people go to the gym
0:07:07 because
0:07:08 and there's pain involved in that almost
0:07:10 every sport has a pain involved in it
0:07:12 you know so it's that we don't mean
0:07:15 we mean a pure pain with no benefit no
0:07:18 enjoyment no sense of achievement
0:07:20 you know
0:07:21 uh going on to this uh the difference
0:07:23 between psychological egoism and ethical
0:07:27 so okay egoism is the idea of
0:07:29 self-interest self-love okay
0:07:32 self-interest selfishness okay self-love
0:07:35 yeah
0:07:37 now
0:07:38 psychological egoism is the idea that we
0:07:41 as human beings
0:07:43 are self-interested by nature
0:07:46 but everything that we do is for
0:07:48 ourselves
0:07:50 every single thing you do
0:07:53 is for yourself
0:07:55 is this a moral claim
0:07:59 it's not a moral claim because we're not
0:08:00 saying it should be
0:08:02 ought to be
0:08:03 it's okay for it to be it's good for it
0:08:05 to be for yourself but that's why it's
0:08:07 called psychological egoism
0:08:10 psychologists speak about it it's the
0:08:11 field now of psychology
0:08:14 so everything you do is for yourself
0:08:17 this is a very important question i'm
0:08:19 gonna pause here and i want you to
0:08:20 really think about this
0:08:22 to what extent do you agree with this
0:08:24 statement three minutes speak to the
0:08:26 person next to you
0:08:27 really think about it obviously
0:08:30 all right so yeah let's get back and uh
0:08:32 there's some interesting conversations
0:08:33 going on here why don't you bring it to
0:08:35 us tell us what you're talking about
0:08:36 yeah so we mentioned that there is there
0:08:39 is definitely truth in this um
0:08:42 uh in
0:08:43 in that a person uh usually you know
0:08:45 when they live their daily life they do
0:08:47 things out of self-interest um you know
0:08:49 whether it be working and so on um
0:08:51 and
0:08:52 also our self-love and the reason a
0:08:54 person does something is usually uh to
0:08:57 fulfill like a kind of uh
0:09:00 satisfaction within themselves whether
0:09:02 it's like mental
0:09:03 biological or um and the financial right
0:09:07 but then we kind of progressed on to god
0:09:08 okay how about a mother um who loves her
0:09:10 child
0:09:12 usually her mother would sacrifice her
0:09:13 own interests
0:09:14 her own well-being for the sake of her
0:09:16 child
0:09:17 um but then a person might be able to
0:09:19 argue and say that
0:09:21 a mother is only doing this to feel her
0:09:23 own biological needs her own instinctual
0:09:26 needs right however is this the same as
0:09:28 her sacrificing herself from a
0:09:31 psychological standpoint like because
0:09:33 psychologically her interest would still
0:09:36 be to you know like to
0:09:38 eat eat this plate of food rather than
0:09:40 give it to her child so it's like
0:09:42 there's a con
0:09:43 there's a confliction of like biological
0:09:45 need and
0:09:46 um
0:09:47 like psychological kind of interest
0:09:48 there yes yeah i think you've definitely
0:09:51 thinking about on the right tracks and
0:09:52 this is exactly the kind of
0:09:53 conversations i had
0:09:55 you know
0:09:56 on the example of the mother sacrificing
0:09:58 herself with a child
0:10:00 it could very well be argued that she's
0:10:01 doing that because she couldn't live
0:10:03 with herself if she didn't do that she'd
0:10:05 rather live a life where she would
0:10:07 rather not live than have to live a life
0:10:10 thinking that she didn't save her child
0:10:12 so the pain
0:10:13 of not sacrificing her child
0:10:16 herself for her child would be more than
0:10:18 the the pleasure that she would have
0:10:20 living the rest of her life in guilt
0:10:23 so these are the kinds of arguments you
0:10:24 know
0:10:25 the genetics
0:10:27 example
0:10:30 grenade
0:10:31 yeah the great example is actually one
0:10:32 that's all used as well like you know
0:10:35 and uh you know jumping on a grenade and
0:10:37 stuff but then
0:10:38 the question is is that person doing it
0:10:40 to leave some kind of a legacy behind
0:10:42 or because they they think that this is
0:10:44 what's gonna really like the thought of
0:10:46 them doing that
0:10:47 will make them into some kind of a
0:10:49 historical figure if they don't do it
0:10:52 but if they don't do it then they say
0:10:54 for example the nation will be destroyed
0:10:56 his family will be raped his house will
0:10:58 be taken well he's mentally not going to
0:11:00 leave him or mentally he can't live with
0:11:02 the pain yeah
0:11:04 and oracle
0:11:05 and or a combination of all of those
0:11:07 factors so that he ultimately reasons
0:11:10 i'm going to jump on this grenade and be
0:11:12 brave
0:11:13 and that makes me a man or that makes me
0:11:15 a patriot or that makes me a you know a
0:11:17 true
0:11:19 warrior or something
0:11:21 you know
0:11:22 any other points on this
0:11:25 basically
0:11:26 we agree with the with the other guys
0:11:30 there's always a degree of self-interest
0:11:33 um whether that's um
0:11:35 an internal
0:11:36 happiness that you gain from something
0:11:39 or you can gain the exterior adulation
0:11:42 of other people by doing something yeah
0:11:45 so there's always some form of
0:11:47 self-self-interest involved do you know
0:11:49 it's very good well put i think that's
0:11:51 absolutely i think it's very difficult
0:11:53 to argue against this
0:11:54 basically i think it has been very
0:11:56 difficult for anyone to argue guys in
0:11:58 psychology
0:12:00 and even in uh philosophy to a lesser
0:12:01 extent but
0:12:03 what i find interesting is there's been
0:12:04 a proliferation recently in the last i
0:12:06 would say 20 or 30 years especially of
0:12:09 literature and psychology about
0:12:10 narcissism i'm not sure if you've seen
0:12:12 this there's even youtube channels being
0:12:14 uh established how to deal with a
0:12:16 narcissist and how to do this and then
0:12:18 everyone thinks everyone else is the
0:12:19 narcissist but everyone has analysis in
0:12:21 them
0:12:22 and uh the the conventional model right
0:12:25 is you've got a spectrum i'm not sure if
0:12:27 you've seen this spectrum or if you've
0:12:28 heard of it but you've got on the one
0:12:30 side you've got the overt narcissist and
0:12:33 then on the other side you have what you
0:12:34 call the covert narcissist
0:12:35 and these are two um
0:12:38 sides
0:12:40 of uh it's like a spectrum right so the
0:12:41 over narcissist is an exhibitionist
0:12:44 comes across extremely confident
0:12:46 basically like me
0:12:53 you know um
0:12:54 they will they will openly
0:12:56 tell you what they you know what they
0:12:58 want in life and what they will they're
0:12:59 very disagreeable these kind of
0:13:02 that one is easy to identify
0:13:04 but the cover narcissist
0:13:06 the cobra narcissist they're more
0:13:08 difficult to identify because they can
0:13:10 be introverted they're introverted um in
0:13:13 relationship psychology by the way
0:13:15 a lot of the times for better or worse
0:13:17 it's attributed to the woman in the
0:13:19 relationship
0:13:20 so
0:13:21 the man he's trying to dominate his
0:13:23 partner through over means you know
0:13:24 trying to
0:13:25 shout her talk to her threaten whatever
0:13:28 the woman what she will do uh you know
0:13:30 this is the
0:13:31 a simplistic model of you know cofounder
0:13:33 covert narcissism and what she will do a
0:13:36 lot of the time she okay stay quiet or
0:13:38 whatever and then she will leverage the
0:13:40 man in a way which is more subtle
0:13:43 she'll go speak to her friends about him
0:13:46 she'll make a plan with her mom
0:13:48 about the guy and so and these kind of
0:13:50 things it's like
0:13:51 obviously this is very simplistic but
0:13:53 all of them are doing the same thing
0:13:54 which is what
0:13:56 they're all trying to fulfill their own
0:13:57 interest
0:13:58 and they're using whatever is in their
0:14:00 power to be able to do so why wouldn't
0:14:02 the woman in the relationship
0:14:03 conventionally right why wouldn't she
0:14:06 use overt means because she has a
0:14:08 lacking of advantage in that
0:14:10 aspect
0:14:11 she's not going to go over dominate the
0:14:13 guy that's bigger and stronger than
0:14:14 louder than her has more money than her
0:14:16 as in most cases or whatever it is yeah
0:14:18 so she will use the
0:14:20 hidden you know the model goes you know
0:14:23 this is you know how they talk about it
0:14:26 means and then you have the nak mom have
0:14:28 you heard of this the narc mom a
0:14:30 narcissistic mom
0:14:32 and you have all these terms about
0:14:33 different types of narcissists you know
0:14:35 you've got this one and that one and
0:14:37 these are
0:14:37 the point of the matter is the
0:14:39 assumption is always
0:14:41 that we are free
0:14:43 from this
0:14:44 ability or this propensity to be
0:14:47 egoistic and self-interested and
0:14:49 everyone else is doing it to us and they
0:14:51 it's true that someone can be so
0:14:53 pathological or neurotic yeah
0:14:56 that they seem not to care at all
0:14:59 about and this is probably what they're
0:15:00 referring to when they're talking about
0:15:01 narcissism but the question is who
0:15:03 really gets to set the criterion
0:15:05 where does it become narcissism where
0:15:07 does it stop being psychological egoism
0:15:10 and start being psychological narcissism
0:15:13 this is a subjective criterion let's
0:15:15 just completely be honest about it and
0:15:17 who gets to judge it and who will be
0:15:19 discriminated against the most in these
0:15:21 analyses mostly i would i would wager
0:15:24 it would be the the over narcissist
0:15:26 because it's so obvious that that's what
0:15:28 they're trying to do the covert
0:15:29 narcissist gets uh
0:15:31 you know soft voice
0:15:33 calm you know this and that but she's a
0:15:36 monster he's a monster right yeah she's
0:15:38 been trying to do it behind his back
0:15:40 she's still talking to her girlfriends
0:15:41 about him maybe she's cheating on him
0:15:43 you know you know what i mean maybe
0:15:44 she's doing all this kind of
0:15:46 maybe she's taking stealing his mic
0:15:47 whatever it may be but these are just
0:15:48 hidden but it's the same you know thing
0:15:51 so
0:15:54 these are just uh interesting uh side
0:15:55 notes
0:15:57 uh i'm not convinced i have to say
0:15:59 looking at the literature of uh
0:16:01 in psychology on narcissism there's lots
0:16:03 of books popular books
0:16:04 and academic works i'm not convinced
0:16:07 that this this thing is a hard and fast
0:16:08 science i'm not convinced at all by that
0:16:11 and
0:16:12 they they refer to it really as a
0:16:13 personality disorder
0:16:15 but who gets to really choose okay this
0:16:17 person has the psychological disorder
0:16:19 and the one who gets to choose that is
0:16:21 actually an authoritative position by
0:16:22 the way you're giving that person a lot
0:16:24 of power by choosing who is the bad guy
0:16:26 who's a good guy in this equation
0:16:28 and i think these are conversations that
0:16:30 we need to start having because if it's
0:16:31 true and i think we all have identified
0:16:33 that we've all got some kind of
0:16:35 psychological propensity to
0:16:36 self-interest
0:16:37 even the most seemingly
0:16:40 um giving person that you've ever seen
0:16:42 in your life
0:16:43 then the labeling
0:16:46 of narcissists not lastices and this
0:16:48 kind of language that can be very
0:16:50 damaging
0:16:52 it's like you know you know islamic uh
0:16:56 heroes theology this guy's a catholic
0:16:58 this guy's a mukta who gets to choose
0:16:59 who gets to choose
0:17:01 you know it's the same thing the
0:17:02 psychologist can use this to blackmail
0:17:04 to
0:17:05 or to to to harm somebody or he's a
0:17:08 narcissist unless we have to deal with
0:17:09 them in that way or this person is that
0:17:11 what you have to do like so we have to
0:17:12 be careful of these kinds of things
0:17:13 especially in pastoral settings yeah
0:17:15 now that we know the underpinning
0:17:17 psychology behind it we'll take
0:17:20 all of their descriptions with a very
0:17:21 heavy pinch of soul okay
0:17:24 we have to take it with a very heavy
0:17:25 pinch of salt because otherwise people
0:17:26 can be abused in the community being
0:17:28 labeled
0:17:29 yeah and otherwise anyway this is just a
0:17:31 side point the point of the matter is i
0:17:32 think we all agree
0:17:34 that that human action
0:17:36 is largely motivated
0:17:38 by
0:17:39 uh
0:17:40 self-interest okay now ethical egoism on
0:17:42 the other hand okay ethical egoism
0:17:45 is
0:17:46 the idea that you should act within your
0:17:48 best interest
0:17:50 that you should act now we're moving
0:17:51 away from is to ought
0:17:54 okay no no it's not just that you are
0:17:56 acting within your best interest
0:17:58 you should why should you because you
0:18:00 live one time according to the secular
0:18:02 ethic
0:18:04 you only live once
0:18:06 this is your pleasure why should you
0:18:07 sacrifice your happiness and enjoyment
0:18:10 for somebody else
0:18:12 why should you sacrifice
0:18:14 why should you have the slave mentality
0:18:17 of of of
0:18:18 uh serving and
0:18:20 and maybe these people won't even
0:18:22 be grateful for what you have to do
0:18:24 so it's not even there's no reciprocity
0:18:25 there maybe there's maybe there's no
0:18:27 transaction there's no transaction there
0:18:29 there's no interaction there's no um
0:18:32 you're being abused basically
0:18:34 you know
0:18:35 this is the idea
0:18:37 of course we're gonna
0:18:39 talk about this in more detail
0:18:41 in the coming slides
0:18:45 uh this is actually closely linked
0:18:49 to the idea of the ed ego on the super
0:18:50 ego and i think it's an important thing
0:18:52 we've talked about the idiom in the
0:18:53 super ego this is a very important thing
0:18:55 in psychology right and this is called
0:18:57 psychoanalysis
0:18:59 yeah
0:19:00 so the branch of psychology which refers
0:19:02 to the unconscious mind
0:19:03 with with with thinkers such as freud
0:19:06 and carl jung these are probably the two
0:19:09 most popular ones in the early 20th
0:19:11 century who spoke about these things
0:19:13 uh young had this idea of the self or
0:19:15 the psyche he referred to as a psyche
0:19:17 and the freud very
0:19:19 famously he divided the human
0:19:22 unconscious drivers into the eagle super
0:19:25 ego
0:19:26 id okay you're born according to freud
0:19:28 you're born
0:19:30 an id now what isn't it
0:19:32 you're born all you have is wants and
0:19:34 and desires
0:19:36 like if you
0:19:37 many of you had children maybe you've
0:19:38 seen little children walking around i
0:19:41 want this i don't want this i hate this
0:19:42 this you know that's how they are
0:19:44 they don't have any they don't have a
0:19:45 filter they don't think about it there's
0:19:47 that's why one cry
0:19:49 that's how you get
0:19:50 we're all born with just once basically
0:19:53 and the ego
0:19:55 is societal rules so when you get older
0:19:58 do this don't do this you get older like
0:20:00 six years old five year or three or even
0:20:01 three you you have to go to the toilet
0:20:03 now pour your training this that
0:20:04 whatever it may be yeah and then when
0:20:06 you grow older you have more and more
0:20:07 rules imposed upon you
0:20:09 and then this thing called the superego
0:20:11 sorts it out
0:20:13 so it's the superego says this is when
0:20:15 you can have fun and this is what you
0:20:16 can you can you can
0:20:19 indulge in whatever desire you have and
0:20:21 this is when you can't
0:20:23 so this is the the the freudian model
0:20:25 the the the ego and the super ego
0:20:28 and
0:20:29 this is important because obviously the
0:20:31 assumption is that you do have these
0:20:32 drivers that you do have these wants and
0:20:34 desires
0:20:35 yeah
0:20:36 but that you you're trying to moderate
0:20:38 them so you can survive basically in in
0:20:41 the society that you live in and stuff
0:20:43 okay so it's closely connected to that
0:20:44 as well
0:20:46 and um
0:20:48 and by the way uh this is very important
0:20:50 actually i think i think we should
0:20:51 mention it
0:20:53 uh
0:20:54 counseling and psychological services
0:20:57 we might as well mention this right
0:20:59 for example in this country you have to
0:21:01 um
0:21:02 major kind of things if someone has
0:21:04 mental health issues
0:21:05 obviously they'll give them drugs
0:21:07 uh ssris they're called serotonin
0:21:10 something inhibits something
0:21:14 you know citalopram these kinds of
0:21:15 things you take it and it is meant to
0:21:17 increase your serotonin yeah this is one
0:21:20 model
0:21:22 but they also have
0:21:24 counseling
0:21:25 and counseling is divided into two
0:21:27 you have psychoanalysis
0:21:29 and then you have cbt cognitive
0:21:30 behavioral therapy and they both operate
0:21:33 on different paradigms
0:21:34 and the psychoanalysis
0:21:36 operation paradigm
0:21:38 that you as when you were growing older
0:21:41 you had these psychosexual stages of
0:21:42 development you have these wants this
0:21:44 desires whatever
0:21:46 and your pathologies and your your
0:21:49 uh problems in life your mental issues
0:21:52 relate to your upbringing
0:21:54 for the most part this is simplistic but
0:21:56 yeah that's a big chunk of it
0:21:59 so if you're what the the the therapist
0:22:01 will do with you if they've been trained
0:22:03 they'll sit with you
0:22:05 if this
0:22:06 psychoanalysis they call it the talking
0:22:08 cure they'll get you to talk
0:22:10 so what this asks you some questions you
0:22:12 end up talking 80 of the time you'll
0:22:14 think this person is wasting my time
0:22:16 because i'm just telling them my story
0:22:19 i'm not saying this is ineffectual by
0:22:21 the way i'm just saying this is
0:22:23 what happens yeah
0:22:24 and then they also ask you questions
0:22:25 about your childhood what's your dad do
0:22:27 you know what's in that way you know you
0:22:28 know how about your mom relationship
0:22:30 with your parents or whatever you know
0:22:32 and then
0:22:33 then there's a breakthrough moment maybe
0:22:34 when you were seven year old your mom
0:22:36 slapped you or something in front of
0:22:37 everyone i don't know like maybe your
0:22:39 dad wasn't giving you some good uh
0:22:41 the affection that you needed or you
0:22:42 know whatever it may be
0:22:44 and then they'll pinpoint that this is
0:22:46 usually what happens right and the
0:22:47 pinpoint this time this is when
0:22:48 everything changed for you
0:22:50 because it has to do with your wants and
0:22:52 your desires etc and so the idea of
0:22:56 uh psychoanalysis
0:22:58 is predicated on these assumptions
0:23:01 that we're talking about here and
0:23:02 they're all connected it's all
0:23:03 interconnected
0:23:04 now why am i mentioning this is because
0:23:07 a lot of the time a counselor will come
0:23:08 and say to you
0:23:10 uh you need to have more self-esteem
0:23:12 they'll use this exact terminology
0:23:13 self-esteem
0:23:14 now what is self-esteem
0:23:16 self-esteem is actually the language
0:23:18 that ego is used
0:23:20 self-esteem is actually self-love
0:23:22 in fact iron rand
0:23:24 the
0:23:25 philosopher who puts forward ethical
0:23:26 legalism she makes a point of making
0:23:29 this term self-esteem self-esteem we
0:23:31 need to boost your self-esteem boost
0:23:33 self-esteem boost
0:23:34 self-esteem what is the opposite of
0:23:36 self-esteem insecurity
0:23:39 the idea is that you shouldn't have
0:23:40 insecurities that you should have
0:23:41 self-esteem which means you should love
0:23:43 yourself and be capable you should be
0:23:45 so
0:23:46 confident in your own abilities
0:23:49 but the question is why should we
0:23:53 why should you even have why should you
0:23:55 be allowed self-esteem
0:23:57 i i i know it's a this may be
0:24:00 uh uncomfortable question but if you
0:24:02 don't have self-esteem maybe you
0:24:04 shouldn't have it
0:24:06 is there anything that suggests that you
0:24:07 should have self-esteem self-love
0:24:09 you should love yourself love yourself
0:24:10 they say
0:24:11 have you seen this you've seen this
0:24:13 right they'll sit with you in um
0:24:16 you know it can be a gender-based thing
0:24:18 it can be a race-based thing we have to
0:24:20 love ourselves first so about for us
0:24:22 first
0:24:23 why
0:24:25 because if we don't love ourselves no
0:24:26 one's gonna love us
0:24:28 whatever like you know
0:24:30 but the idea is there like this is
0:24:31 egoism
0:24:33 and what i'm saying is it creeps away
0:24:35 from psychological egoism and starts to
0:24:37 make its way into ethical egoism through
0:24:40 things even so subtle as counseling
0:24:44 you need to build your self-esteem but
0:24:46 wait a minute
0:24:47 if that person doesn't have self-esteem
0:24:49 because they are being told off
0:24:51 by someone in their life who's an
0:24:52 authority figure or someone who knows
0:24:54 something about them that they
0:24:56 potentially need to change
0:24:58 according to a reciprocal model of
0:25:00 morality
0:25:01 that maybe self-esteem is not the best
0:25:02 thing for them
0:25:04 maybe they shouldn't have self maybe
0:25:06 they should have insecurity maybe
0:25:07 insecurity is the the solution
0:25:10 have you ever have you ever could you
0:25:11 ever imagine a counselor saying to a
0:25:14 you should have a little bit more
0:25:15 insecurity
0:25:17 can you imagine that being said it's not
0:25:19 going to be said because remember you're
0:25:20 trying to make that person feel better
0:25:24 yeah why are you trying to make him feel
0:25:25 better what's the assumption here what
0:25:27 about if he needs to feel worse
0:25:30 do you see the point
0:25:32 like how about that like you know
0:25:33 these are very
0:25:35 deep questions but what i'm saying is
0:25:37 ethical egoism creeps its way into a
0:25:39 moral landscape
0:25:41 use
0:25:42 through things like counseling sometimes
0:25:44 through things like conversations um
0:25:47 behind closed doors locker room talk
0:25:48 whatever it may be
0:25:50 it creeps its way back in into the
0:25:52 discourse
0:25:53 and then you'll start to develop an
0:25:55 entire morality which you don't even
0:25:56 realize you have
0:25:59 i need to think about myself
0:26:02 maybe you've said that to yourself one
0:26:03 day i i know i have
0:26:06 you know this was yesterday
0:26:08 i was thinking that i was driving up
0:26:10 here you know whatever like you know
0:26:13 i had to think about myself first
0:26:15 as well
0:26:16 and to think about myself you know
0:26:19 and then they'll start justifying it if
0:26:21 i don't have the oxygen you know then i
0:26:22 can't give it to anyone yeah these kinds
0:26:23 of examples and sometimes i'm not saying
0:26:25 these justifications are all wrong by
0:26:26 the way i'm just saying so far we're now
0:26:29 we're now moving into
0:26:31 we are now moving into
0:26:34 ethics and we have to be careful because
0:26:36 everything ethical now is the domain for
0:26:38 us as muslims of the divine
0:26:42 this is the domain of the divine
0:26:45 so we have to start
0:26:47 i don't know if you are following any
0:26:49 questions on this point on islamic
0:26:50 paradigm it's not necessarily wrong to
0:26:51 think of yourself first right well
0:26:55 we'll come well this is the next step
0:26:56 right good
0:26:58 islam has a diagnostic okay and this is
0:27:01 the next slide
0:27:02 it has a diagnostic and it has a
0:27:04 prescription okay
0:27:07 the islam
0:27:10 diagnoses the human being as selfish
0:27:12 and motivated by anxiety
0:27:15 it actually does that it agrees with
0:27:16 this to a large extent
0:27:28 you know when we have given the person
0:27:30 mercy and then we take it away from him
0:27:31 he is yet
0:27:32 he's hopeless and kafur is very
0:27:34 ungrateful
0:27:36 you know obviously in the omaha
0:27:39 on the day of judgement this is most
0:27:42 acutely felt everyone's going to be
0:27:44 running away from their own family
0:27:45 members
0:27:46 it's the same human being right you're
0:27:47 going to be running away from your mom
0:27:48 and dad what kind of you can't say i'm
0:27:49 altruistic
0:27:54 you know what one of them was going to
0:27:55 want to ransom their lives with their
0:27:58 kids and this and that
0:28:00 when the stakes go higher we become more
0:28:02 selfish basically that's that's the
0:28:04 model in islam the stakes go higher we
0:28:06 become more and more selfish we say no
0:28:07 we're not we're not going to take that
0:28:09 pain there's a there's a point where the
0:28:10 pain becomes too much that we don't even
0:28:12 care about on our parents
0:28:14 and our own kids that's the idea they
0:28:16 actually agree this agrees with ethical
0:28:17 egoism on a psychological level to a
0:28:20 high extent
0:28:22 in my view right because look at look at
0:28:23 the verses how could you explain that
0:28:25 that means that the
0:28:27 ani that means that the the assumption
0:28:29 is people are self concerned they are
0:28:32 even the prophets
0:28:34 yeah we won't go into this you know
0:28:36 i know i know the hadith never seen fc
0:28:38 and myself myself
0:28:40 yeah yeah they always make blood for
0:28:42 themselves first right robin
0:28:46 will stop himself
0:28:47 yeah we'll come to this but but
0:28:50 you're on the right tracks i'm for sure
0:28:53 so this is the diagnostic
0:28:55 what does islam say does it say you
0:28:57 don't you shouldn't think about yourself
0:28:58 it doesn't say that
0:29:00 by the way
0:29:01 otherwise jannah and na would not be
0:29:02 incentives heaven and hell would not be
0:29:04 incentives
0:29:06 if a lot of the incentives in the
0:29:07 religion of islam are based on the model
0:29:09 that human beings are actually
0:29:10 self-interested
0:29:13 you threaten them with more pain
0:29:16 because if you don't
0:29:18 then the more pain you threaten someone
0:29:20 with and the more they believe that
0:29:21 that's actually a legitimate threat the
0:29:23 less likely they are to do the action
0:29:25 and this is you could say this is
0:29:26 behavioralist psychology 101 then what's
0:29:29 in the skin and the dog
0:29:30 this is the truth
0:29:36 yeah with covert but with you know if
0:29:38 someone puts a gun to your head you're
0:29:39 going to change your your whole demeanor
0:29:40 is going to change
0:29:44 yes
0:29:46 exactly right yeah exactly yeah that's a
0:29:48 good point now
0:29:54 islam does
0:29:56 however
0:29:57 the islamic model
0:29:58 is
0:29:59 the purpose of life is to worship god
0:30:03 and worshiping god the apex of it is to
0:30:06 worship god for what reason
0:30:08 his pleasure
0:30:09 because he's worthy of worship
0:30:13 not because
0:30:14 so if you try and form an intent islam
0:30:17 actually says
0:30:18 if you try and form an intention that
0:30:20 says that i'm worshiping allah not
0:30:23 because it's good for me or because of
0:30:25 heaven and hell but because he's worthy
0:30:27 of worship that's a higher level
0:30:30 intentionally than to do for your say
0:30:34 now can someone
0:30:37 the question is can someone completely
0:30:39 and i've thought about this a lot
0:30:41 can someone completely dis
0:30:44 break off break off
0:30:45 any notion
0:30:47 of self-interest from this i think
0:30:49 that's difficult i would say for me
0:30:51 because i can't speak on anyone else
0:30:52 about that's impossible
0:30:54 he talks about that in his literature
0:30:55 isn't it he said the highest form is do
0:30:56 it for the pleasure of allah people some
0:30:58 people do it
0:31:00 yeah yeah exactly so to do for the for
0:31:02 the pledge of allah to do because allah
0:31:03 is worthy of worship yeah however is
0:31:06 that the only reason why i'm doing it
0:31:07 it's going to be difficult i would never
0:31:09 say yes to that question that would be
0:31:10 me lying to you in front of your faces i
0:31:12 would
0:31:13 there's always an element of
0:31:15 self-interest there
0:31:16 in my opinion for me anyway
0:31:18 my my aim is not to try and deplete that
0:31:21 because
0:31:22 i don't think allah has le held me to
0:31:24 that standard and if he held him to that
0:31:26 standard there would be no heaven in
0:31:27 hell worship allah no incentive no
0:31:29 disincentive
0:31:30 he knows what he created and he created
0:31:33 self-interested to a large extent
0:31:36 beings
0:31:37 but but
0:31:39 we have to try and rid ourselves from
0:31:41 this as much as we can
0:31:44 we do actually have and it's not
0:31:46 inconceivable the islamic paradigm goes
0:31:49 for you to worship god
0:31:52 because god is worthy of worship because
0:31:54 he is has all these attributes
0:31:56 and that this is the most appropriate
0:31:58 thing to do with a god like that or the
0:32:00 only god that's worthy of worship this
0:32:02 is allah
0:32:03 now if you're worshiping allah like
0:32:05 you're praying and you're fasting and
0:32:07 that's in your mind that's the highest
0:32:09 form of worship
0:32:11 that's actually the highest worship
0:32:13 where you try and you try and
0:32:15 have an out of body experience like you
0:32:17 actually think to yourself i'm doing
0:32:19 this
0:32:20 because
0:32:21 god is worthy of worship even though
0:32:24 the unconscious mind might say you're a
0:32:25 liar
0:32:27 your unconscious mind will say to you
0:32:28 liar you're doing this because you feel
0:32:30 good don't you huh
0:32:33 but let the unconscious mind say
0:32:34 whatever it wants to say so long as you
0:32:36 make a conscientious effort
0:32:38 to say that to yourself when you're
0:32:40 praying
0:32:41 this is a level high level which is like
0:32:44 you know when you when you're
0:32:45 concentrating in the prayer it's the
0:32:46 highest level there's no higher this is
0:32:49 the spiritual apex
0:32:54 now the second question is when will
0:32:57 because that's fine that's a spiritual
0:32:58 discussion but now let's talk about
0:33:00 practical discussion
0:33:04 yeah if you want to you can read this
0:33:05 woman's book you know iron rant she has
0:33:07 a book called virtues of selfish virtue
0:33:08 of selfishness and she basically makes
0:33:11 the argument that even even even despite
0:33:13 the consequences like but this could
0:33:15 justify genocide these are some of the
0:33:17 problems right if it's despite the
0:33:19 consequences no it's no longer
0:33:20 consequentialist then you can kill
0:33:21 somebody i want to do it so what you're
0:33:23 going to stop me
0:33:25 you can you can uh you know hurt
0:33:27 somebody can do these things and then we
0:33:28 go back to kind of utilitarian logic
0:33:30 but even worse because it's it's not
0:33:33 even considering the whole good it's
0:33:35 even worse maybe i shouldn't use that on
0:33:38 neutral term
0:33:39 even more individualistic yeah
0:33:41 it's indiv it's an individualistic form
0:33:44 so it's like utilitarianism only that it
0:33:47 does not care about the collective good
0:33:50 it's so it's egoism these things are all
0:33:52 connected but it is
0:33:54 allah says
0:33:57 have you seen the one who has taken his
0:33:58 own lord as
0:34:00 uh his own self as god that's that's
0:34:03 another it's exactly the same thing now
0:34:06 just like individualism as we're going
0:34:07 to cover just like liberalism is founded
0:34:09 on that and newton's theory all of them
0:34:11 are going back to the same thing
0:34:13 that somebody just wants what we have to
0:34:15 be
0:34:16 weary of as muslims is that we don't
0:34:19 take ourselves as the lord
0:34:23 by establishing that there's a higher
0:34:25 authority that's worthy of worship
0:34:27 that's not us and that we submit those
0:34:29 desires our desires to that were that
0:34:31 higher
0:34:32 authority
0:34:35 okay
0:34:36 so to summarize this point okay
0:34:39 psychological egoism
0:34:41 we said is self-interest
0:34:44 ethical egoism is that you should have
0:34:46 self-interest the islamic model says you
0:34:49 do have self-interest
0:34:51 because
0:34:54 you're going to be self-interested yeah
0:34:57 however
0:34:59 and yes that's natural it doesn't it's
0:35:01 not hype it's not bad in islam for you
0:35:03 to be self-interested but the apex of
0:35:05 spirituality in islam
0:35:07 is to worship allah for what
0:35:10 because it's worthy of worship not
0:35:11 because of
0:35:12 not because it's for you
0:35:14 now when you're doing that when you're
0:35:16 praying now and you're doing dua and
0:35:18 you're doing sujoolin whatever yeah and
0:35:20 you're thinking i'm doing this because
0:35:22 allah he's worthy of this it's the most
0:35:24 appropriate action
0:35:26 is your is there a conflict of interest
0:35:28 inside of your psyche if you want to put
0:35:30 it in jungian terms or your id ego and
0:35:33 superego if you're freudian terms
0:35:36 or you're nafs if you want to put in
0:35:37 islamic terms yes there is a conflict of
0:35:39 interest because you're not saying no
0:35:41 your next is saying i'm doing this for
0:35:42 my own sake
0:35:44 but despite the fact that your nests
0:35:46 will continue saying that
0:35:48 and if you're honest about it you just
0:35:50 verbalize it i'm doing this for myself
0:35:51 yeah
0:35:53 you have to conscientiously make an
0:35:55 effort
0:35:57 to deplete that from your nephs
0:36:01 now you will never succeed
0:36:04 i know that sounds uh it's you it's
0:36:06 impossible i i personally believe this
0:36:08 i will never succeed let me speak in my
0:36:09 mind i will never succeed in doing that
0:36:12 but the the the effort
0:36:14 is all that is god wants to see from our
0:36:16 perspective
0:36:17 that effort you will never do anything
0:36:20 outside of your interest
0:36:23 but the effort
0:36:25 is that which brings you to the high
0:36:27 level the apex of spirituality
0:36:29 now
0:36:31 we said
0:36:32 egoism's problem
0:36:34 is that it doesn't if especially if you
0:36:36 consider non-consequentialist types it
0:36:38 doesn't consider the consequences
0:36:40 you kill somebody you can rape somebody
0:36:42 can do also it doesn't have any base
0:36:45 like if we're talking about the
0:36:46 difference between us as muslims and
0:36:48 them as egoists is that we say
0:36:51 that we take the ultimate authority is
0:36:53 allah they say we take the ultimate
0:36:55 authority as us
0:36:56 and this is going to be linked to
0:36:57 individualism we know what's best for us
0:36:59 we say no we don't
0:37:02 we submit our will
0:37:03 to that which knows what's best for us
0:37:05 which is allah
0:37:09 that's the difference that the ultimate
0:37:10 the issue of ultimate authority
0:37:13 we take as our ultimate authority allah
0:37:15 they take his ultimate authority
0:37:16 themselves
0:37:17 and if we ask them why should you take
0:37:20 yourself as your lord
0:37:22 they will have no answer for that we
0:37:24 know what's best for us no you don't
0:37:25 there's actually no evidence to show
0:37:26 that you know what's best for you
0:37:28 especially if considering the existence
0:37:29 of an all-knowing entity
0:37:31 if you consider such existence and that
0:37:33 all-knowing entity knows more about you
0:37:35 than you know about yourself
0:37:37 individualism and egoism the a hidden
0:37:40 assumption is that you know what's best
0:37:41 for you
0:37:42 that is a baseless assumption if you
0:37:44 especially considering
0:37:47 that uh
0:37:50 there's an all-knowing entity
0:37:58 you can say we believe in the form of
0:38:00 psychological egoism but not ethical
0:38:02 egoism so
0:38:07 egoism remember ethical egoism is that
0:38:09 we should be we care about ourselves
0:38:11 only we say no we we don't care about
0:38:13 ourselves only because we think that the
0:38:15 higher authority is allah so we are
0:38:17 muslims
0:38:21 so we're psychologically self-interested
0:38:23 yeah so now but you still have been
0:38:26 based on what
0:38:27 people say based on what god says yes
0:38:30 yes yes yes yes yes so what we're
0:38:33 looking to gain uh uh is what
0:38:35 differentiates uh with what makes
0:38:37 something more justifiable or not so for
0:38:39 example we are trying to if you're
0:38:40 looking to gain the pleasure of god
0:38:42 that's morally justifiable if you're
0:38:43 looking to gain maybe like popularity
0:38:45 it's not justified that's our pattern
0:38:47 right uh there's well let's get to that
0:38:49 right is
0:38:51 you can gain popularity and you can have
0:38:53 money and you can have you can enjoy
0:38:55 yourself within our paradigm right
0:38:58 right because because
0:39:00 because allah knows what we're about
0:39:02 he's not telling us not to be what we
0:39:04 are
0:39:05 every monk
0:39:06 an ascetic and zahid
0:39:09 that says i'm gonna divorce to dunya is
0:39:11 a liar
0:39:12 and he's never been able to achieve that
0:39:14 and that's something that the prophet
0:39:15 has told we've seen this in hadith you
0:39:17 know someone said i'm never going to get
0:39:18 married i'm not i'm going to keep
0:39:20 fasting you're just doing that in vain
0:39:22 because it's like you're not you're not
0:39:24 nourishing you're not being genuine and
0:39:27 authentic to your true self
0:39:29 your true self doesn't say that you want
0:39:31 to you want a little bit of
0:39:33 popularity actually you want a little
0:39:35 bit of money actually you want a bit of
0:39:36 sex and food and there's nothing wrong
0:39:37 with any of that
0:39:39 in fact you should have a little bit
0:39:41 more no problem so long as you do it
0:39:43 within the paradigms of
0:39:45 islam allah is not bringing us as making
0:39:48 us x and telling us to be why
0:39:50 it's like a transgender project
0:39:53 like you it created me as a man well i'm
0:39:55 going to be a woman now
0:39:56 it's no there is a sense
0:39:59 that we we can
0:40:01 manifest some of
0:40:03 the egoism the psychological egoism that
0:40:05 we have
0:40:06 but we must do it within the paradigm of
0:40:08 islam now the problems now and we go
0:40:11 back to consequentialism is where do we
0:40:14 it's a conflict of interest my rights
0:40:17 i do something my wife i'm not gonna
0:40:19 like it
0:40:20 i'm not gonna mention the examples
0:40:23 you know but i think he's like oh i'm
0:40:24 gonna do
0:40:25 something and
0:40:27 my kids my my where is the okay so this
0:40:30 is how you make a decision
0:40:33 according to the islamic paradigm you
0:40:34 make a decision based on the maslaha
0:40:39 what will produce the most
0:40:42 benefit to this dunya hereafter
0:40:45 now you might not always know what that
0:40:47 is
0:40:49 this is the problem you don't know where
0:40:50 that is
0:40:53 it's difficult these are these are
0:40:54 difficult decisions
0:40:57 you know and but that's where
0:41:00 that's what a fire is
0:41:02 that's where that's where that's where
0:41:04 difficulty lies
0:41:05 they're in the difficulty lies you know
0:41:07 you make a decision what shall i do like
0:41:09 i shall do extra do i
0:41:11 i want to enjoy myself but i want to
0:41:12 enjoy myself you know why so others can
0:41:14 enjoy themselves so i can so i can relax
0:41:16 so
0:41:17 so at home everything's okay
0:41:19 so whatever you know
0:41:21 i want to play football on a friday
0:41:22 night or a saturday night
0:41:24 so that when i go home and i spend time
0:41:25 with the kids now i can give them
0:41:26 quality time
0:41:28 no you can't play football okay well
0:41:30 then watch what i'm gonna be doing with
0:41:31 the kids on friday and saturday
0:41:33 if you don't let the person have their
0:41:34 own
0:41:35 on the flip side the wife you know i
0:41:37 want to go to my friend's house
0:41:39 no you can't go to your friend's house
0:41:40 all right when she's going to sit there
0:41:41 and you know not like what she you're
0:41:43 not going to enjoy her time with you
0:41:44 because she hasn't done what she wants
0:41:46 to do
0:41:49 and these are the kinds of these are the
0:41:51 practical real life
0:41:53 situations but self-denial perpetu
0:41:55 there's two extremes perpetual
0:41:57 self-denial
0:41:59 that's one extreme which is not gonna
0:42:01 work
0:42:03 like psychologically that's not gonna
0:42:04 work
0:42:05 myself tonight i'm not gonna go football
0:42:06 i'll do if i will sacrifice the family
0:42:08 sacrifice family to sacrifice five and
0:42:09 say hello you're gonna end up hating
0:42:11 your family or resenting them even on an
0:42:13 unconscious level you're gonna hit
0:42:14 you've got a certain conjugate you start
0:42:15 feeling like why am i why am i doing
0:42:17 this why don't they get involved
0:42:19 on the other hand is
0:42:22 where everything is that you want to
0:42:23 live the single man's lifestyle even
0:42:24 though you're married and you've got
0:42:25 kids in this you don't want to pay money
0:42:27 for example right and that's an example
0:42:29 of
0:42:30 self-interest which we don't we don't
0:42:32 analyze the consequences
0:42:34 so these are the kinds of things where
0:42:35 we say okay well let's bring the sharia
0:42:37 into it
0:42:38 question this is the question you need
0:42:39 to all ask when you're making this
0:42:41 decision and including me and i'm saying
0:42:42 this out loud because it helps me as
0:42:44 well
0:42:45 what will suit
0:42:48 the islamic paradigm of most people
0:42:51 being exposed to guidance
0:42:56 what's going to suit that
0:42:58 what's going to do that is it is it
0:43:00 going to be if i do x or if i do y
0:43:06 what's going to lead to more of
0:43:08 everyone going to heaven for me my
0:43:10 family and everyone else
0:43:12 x or y
0:43:14 that's where you have to play a game of
0:43:16 careful game of probability
0:43:18 careful game
0:43:20 don't be clumsy
0:43:22 like me
0:43:24 make the wrong decisions and stuff
0:43:26 prefrontal lobes have not developed yet
0:43:28 in the brain
0:43:30 and you start thinking we start
0:43:31 justifying our own bs kind of thing you
0:43:33 know sorry to say and we
0:43:36 and this and then we think you know this
0:43:38 we would love
0:43:40 the self-interested option to be the one
0:43:42 that we need to do
0:43:45 and sometimes it is man
0:43:47 sometimes it is sometimes it is the one
0:43:49 but
0:43:50 we have to really ask ourselves this
0:43:52 question is this the best option that i
0:43:54 have at the moment
0:43:56 and that's how the sharia deals with it
0:43:58 the question you have to ask is
0:43:59 different what's going to lead to most
0:44:00 guidance
0:44:02 more stability
0:44:03 more spirituality most nearness to allah
0:44:06 for as many people as possible going
0:44:07 back to the
0:44:08 utilitarian model but islamic one
0:44:11 greatest guidance for the greatest
0:44:13 number
0:44:14 it's not great it's good for the
0:44:15 greatest number greater
0:44:16 greatest guidance for the greatest
0:44:18 number
0:44:19 and with that we conclude
0:44:21 and hopefully you've uh be able to
0:44:23 understand what i've been trying this is
0:44:24 the practical stuff today because a lot
0:44:26 of it's psychological
0:44:27 hopefully uh this helps us
0:44:29 this particular thing i think
0:44:31 has clarified for me at least you know a
0:44:33 lot of stuff in terms of how to make
0:44:36 decisions
0:44:37 in life
0:44:39 and
0:44:40 that's what we need
0:44:41 but if you if you if you operate on an
0:44:43 egoistic system
0:44:45 then your decisions are always going to
0:44:47 have a conflict of interest with someone
0:44:48 else and that's one of the biggest
0:44:49 problems of egoism
0:44:50 it's mentioned in the meton actually
0:44:52 not i'm sorry
0:44:53 that
0:44:54 my interest is going to go against her
0:44:56 and just his interest
0:44:58 and so actually me doing something
0:45:00 against that person's interest and for
0:45:01 my own interest is ironically against my
0:45:03 own interest
0:45:06 you know so we need to we need to we
0:45:08 need to make the right decisions here
0:45:10 and we need to think about these things
0:45:12 properly and hopefully
0:45:14 you've uh benefited from that just
0:45:18 foreign