: What it says (and I made no claim about it saying anything about the influence of values/context) is that the motivation is to act in self interest.
SDF: Do the (deciduous) trees lose their leaves in the autumn out of self-interest?
: You dont seem to think it relavent, it is because is reinforces the idea and exposes the fallacy of 'selflessness'. It doesnt explain why 'jimmy threw a rock' but it does provide a framework to explore the values / context and occludes explanations based upon non self (eg, he did it because his mom was angry is only the beginning of an explanation, not all of it)
SDF: Ah yes, but "he did it because his mom was angry" at least supplies some contextual clues as to the origin of Jimmy's behavior, whereas "he did it because of self-interest" tells us nothing of the sort. "He did it because his mom was angry" thus ranks as the better explanation, which is like saying that 1 is a greater number than 0.
Upon further reflection, I have to wonder what the point of an explanation "he did it because of self-interest" really is, if there really is any point at all. Are we interested in blaming Jimmy to satisfy an emotional fetish? Bad bad bad bad bad bad (repeat as recommended) Jimmy!
