I think there’s enough science on the subject—here’s the first paper I could find with a quick Google—to sketch out an approximate answer to the question of how self-care arises in an individual life. The infant first needs to form the concept of a person (what Bischof calls self-objectification), loosely speaking a being with both a body and a mind. This concept can be applied to both self and others. Then, depending on its level of emotional contagion (likelihood of feeling similarly to others when observing their emotions) it will learn, through sophisticated operant conditioning, self-concern and other-concern at different rates.
Since the typical human degree of emotional contagion is less than unity, we tend to be selfish to some degree. I’m using the word “selfish” just as you’ve indicated.
I think there’s enough science on the subject—here’s the first paper I could find with a quick Google—to sketch out an approximate answer to the question of how self-care arises in an individual life. The infant first needs to form the concept of a person (what Bischof calls self-objectification), loosely speaking a being with both a body and a mind. This concept can be applied to both self and others. Then, depending on its level of emotional contagion (likelihood of feeling similarly to others when observing their emotions) it will learn, through sophisticated operant conditioning, self-concern and other-concern at different rates.
Since the typical human degree of emotional contagion is less than unity, we tend to be selfish to some degree. I’m using the word “selfish” just as you’ve indicated.