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Psychological Egoism. Psychological Egoism. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F34CEF0EF4C5B01D&playnext=1&v=HCHu1E0ca4E. Psychological Egoism. A theory of human nature, widely held among positivist philosophers, psychologists and economists (and by many other people)
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Psychological Egoism • http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F34CEF0EF4C5B01D&playnext=1&v=HCHu1E0ca4E
Psychological Egoism • A theory of human nature, widely held among positivist philosophers, psychologists and economists (and by many other people) • According to this theory each person is so constituted that he will look out only for his own interests • Pure altruism is a myth—it simply does not exist
1st Argument for Psychological Egoism • If true, it provides an elegant theoretically way to describe a wide array of human behaviours • It provides the hope of providing a general scientific account of human motives • For example the hypothetical “rational actor” used in many economic models to predict changes in economies and economic activity assume this actor will behave so as always to maximize financial benefits for itself in all its choices
1st Objection • Psychological Egoism seems to fly in the face of the facts • There seem to be clear cases unselfish behaviour (so called altruistic behaviour), such as the proverbial soldier throwing himself on a grenade, parents going into burning buildings, etc. • The response has been to suggest that such examples are too superficial in their analysis
Altruism and Pseudo-Altruism • Altruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others • Theories of apparently-altruistic or pseudo-altruistic behaviour are common in the social science • Various related strands of research on altruism have emerged out of traditional evolutionary analyses, and from game theory, which suggest various mechanisms by which altruistic behaviour can be explained to have actually provide reciprocal advantages for those who practice it
Other Arguments for Psychological Egoism • All actions are done voluntarily, so all actions are things that people want to do, hence selfish by definition, eg. Jones gives money to famine relief this is because he wants to contribute to that cause rather do other things, such as go to the movies • Many so-called unselfish actions produce a sense of self-satisfaction in the person who does them, eg. Abraham Lincoln helped some struggling piglets out of the mud one day, and when asked about it stated “I should have had no peace of mind all day had I gone on and left that suffering old sow worrying over those pigs”
Objections • False Dichotomy? Can’t people have multiple motivations for actions? (eg. Why can’t I sometimes be motivated for both selfish and unselfish reasons, such as when I move my foot so that it won’t be hurt and so you won’t be hurt?) • Equivocation? Does the theory tend to confuse and conflate “self-interest” and “selfish behaviour” (eg. When I brush my teeth is this b/c I am selfish or b/c it’s in my self-interest? Or smoking might be self-indulgent, but it not in my self-interest)
Unfalsifiable? • Dr. David Rosenham, a professor of psychology and law at Stanford, and a group of researchers had themselves admitted as patients to various mental hospitals • The staffs did not know there was anything special about them • The investigator’s purpose was to see how they would be treated • They behaved normally, but they generally discovered that most of what they did was interpreted as a sign of some sort of mental problem (“patient exhibits writing behaviour”) • What the investigators discovered was that once a hypothesis is accepted that observed subjects are not to be trusted to explain their own motives, any of their behaviour can be interpreted to support a favoured explanation of their behaviour • Is psychological egoism like this?
Psychological Egoism • Tells us there is really only one motive, self-regard • In Freudian psychology it is the desire for sex that is at the core of this self-regard (desires put in us by our evolutionary need to reproduce) • In certain economic theories it is the desire for maximal wealth that is the true motive of all human activity • In certain political theories, such as that of Thomas Hobbes, it is the desire for power and the fear of death that is the true motive of all human being (in a state of nature in which there is a “war of all with all”)
