/lit/ - Literature

>>11279466
Knowing why you are doing something is a prerequisite to personal freedom
If you walk into a mall, and you're hungry, then choose to go to get a whopper(tm) somebody might ask you 'why choose that whopper when you have so many options?'
'i like whoppers' you might reply
'but there are so many other options, options that you like as much, if not better, than burger king'
'well i felt in the mood for it'

sure, you felt in the mood for it because you've been watching ads for the whopper, how satisfying it looks to bite into and the beautiful girls who shared that same experience, but that's not conscious when making a choice - really a whopper is unhealthy for you and there are better alternatives for you (in terms of both taste, price, and health)
now, when a young man goes to enlist in the army or dives into the ocean to help a drowning child he might say 'these are good things to do', but why are they good things to do? if they're in his interests and he understands that then he is acting as an voluntary egoist, because certainly their are reasons to do both that benefit you, materially or emotionally
On the other hand, he might believe that these are altruistic or self sacrificing actions, not done for himself but in the service of others, then this man is an involuntary egoist, performing the same action but ignorant to himself
Sartre could point to an injured child, and a normal person might feel pain or pity or a desire to help that child, but is that desire to help in the service of the child? Really the helping relieves you of a feeling of discomfort (helping the child or not caring about the child have the same practical outcome for you) and the choice of whether to help or not is in the interests of making yourself feel better emotionally and/or morally to a higher degree than it is about the child's own pain (which you cannot experience directly)
Without understanding why you are making the choices you're making, or why you want the things you want, you're not free at all - though potentially you have nearly limitless choices, you've still chosen to eat at a shitty burger chain and then lie to yourself about why you did that