“Look out for #1…and

there is no #2.”

ETHICAL EGOISM

“Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of self-sacrifice. Love based on self-interest, we are admonished, is cheap and sordid. True love, we are told, is altruistic.” …But is it?

“Genuine love is the exact opposite. It is the most selfish experience possible, in the true sense of the term: it benefits your life in a way that involves no sacrifice of others to yourself nor of yourself to others.”

BE MY VALENTINE?

- Gary Hull

Selfishness is extolled as a virtue

May appeal to psychological egoism as a foundation

Often very compelling for high school students?

ETHICAL EGOISM

- Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

Personal Ethical Egoism

“I am going to act only in my own interest, and everyone else can do whatever they want.”

Individual Ethical Egoism

“Everyone should act in my own interest.”

VERSIONS OF ETHICAL EGOISM

Universal Ethical Egoism“Each individual should act in his or her own self interest.”

There are at least three (3) principal arguments in favour or Ethical Egoism: Altruism is demeaning Acting selfishly creates a better world It doesn’t result in such a different

world after all

ARGUMENTS FOR ETHICAL EGOISM

Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers argued that altruism was demeaning

it meant that an individual was saying that some other person was more important than that individual.

Nietzsche saw this as denigrating oneself , putting oneself down by valuing oneself less than the other.

This, the heart of altruism, is demeaning in Nietzsche’s eyes.

ALTRUISM IS DEMEANING

Ethical egoists sometimes maintain that if each person took care of himself/herself, the overall effect would be to make the world a better place for everyone.

Epistemological: Each person is best suited to know his or her own best interests.

Moral: Helping others makes them dependent, which ultimately harms them.

ACTING SELFISHLY CREATES A BETTER WORLD

This argument presupposes that people in fact already act selfishly (i.e, psychological egoism) and are just pretending to be altruistic.

If psychological egoism is true, then we should admit its truth and get rid of our hypocrisy.

ETHICAL EGOISM DOESN’T RESULT IN SUCH A DIFFERENT WORLD

AFTER ALL!

Cannot be consistently universalized

Presupposes a world of strangers indifferent to one another.

Difficult to imagine love or even friendship from the altruist’s standpoint.

Seems to be morally insensitive

CRITICISMS OF ETHICAL EGOISM

Can the Ethical Egoist be sensitive to the suffering of others?

Moral sensitivity presupposes that the suffering of others exerts a moral ‘pull’ on the individual; something the Ethical Egoist does not recognize

ETHICAL EGOISM AND MORAL SENSITIVITY

“The Good Samaratin”

Ideally, we seek a society in which self-interest and regard for others converge—the green zone.

Egoism at the expense of others and altruism at the expense of self-interest both create worlds in which goodness and self-regard are mutually exclusive—the yellow zone.

No one wants the red zone, which is against both self-interest and regard for others.

AN IDEAL WORLD?

If we are selfish, do we only do things that are in our genuine self-interest? The Chain SmokerIs this person acting out of genuine self-Interest? In fact, the smoker may be acting Selfishly (doing what he wants without regards to others), but not self-interestedly (doing what will ultimately benefit him)

WRAP-UP: SELFISH OR ALTRUISTIC? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE

SELFISH?

If we are selfish, do we only do things we believe are in our own self-interest?

What about those who believe that sometimes they act altruistically?

Does anyone believe that Mother Teresa was completely selfish??

WRAP UP (CONT)