ABSTRACT
The German term selbstsucht is the best single word to express how Calvin viewed self-love. This is self-preoccupation and self-addiction, and like all addictions, it denotes an insatiable concern for the object of addiction which can never be satisfied. Altruism is seen as morally noble by laypersons because it is assumed to be devoid of self-interest. Selfishness as biologists understand it is morally neutral. Altruism was viewed for a long time as a fly in the ointment of evolutionary logic because it involves extending a benefit to others at some expense to the self. If biology agrees with Jesus that self-love is natural and good, moral philosophers tend to lean more toward Calvin. Love is the creative medium by which the self evolves in all sorts of directions, setting in motion a felicitous spiral of self-growth, lovableness, more self-growth, and more lovableness.
