ABSTRACT
The essays in this chapter consider what are often some of the first questions asked when people begin to study ethics. One is the connection between morality, on the one hand, and self-interest, on the other. Is morality opposed to self-interest, as some suppose, or is it in some sense to everyone’s advantage? Another related question involves people’s actual motives. While we sometimes think we act for the sake of morality, is it possible that this is mistaken and that ultimately our real motives are always selfish ones? These questions lead naturally to the topic of the last essays in the chapter: the connections, if any, between morality and religion, and the relationships between motives of sympathy for others and moral duty.
