: : : SDF: Do the (deciduous) trees lose their leaves in the autumn out of self-interest?: : If they dont they stand a high chance of dying.
: SDF: How so?
During the fall, trees take all the energy from their leaves (thus causing them to change colors and fall off) in order to survive in a state of hybernation throughout the winter.
: : The tree doesnt get to choose suicide, it simply does what it does in order to live.
: SDF: It isn't in a tree's "self-interest" to live?
Trees and plants are intrinsically designed to survive. A plant cannot just "turn off" its cholorplasts and stop photosynthesis. Plants and trees do not have the faculty to reason, which is required, among other things, to be able to act in self-interest.
: SDF: "Self-interest" still means nothing. People are not motivated by "themselves," they have real, nameable motivations. Lust, altruism, hunger, curiosity, pleasure, agony, each of these explains something. "Self-interest" doesn't.
Self-Interest is the motive of performing actions that further the organisms life.
