Ethics

1. Ethics Chapter 5: Ethical Egoism

2. 1. What is Egoism? • Egoism is an attitude that focuses primarily upon one’s own (rather than others’) well being, self-interest and happiness.

3. What is Egoism? Psychological Egoism Ethical Egoism • Descriptive • Psychological egoism claims that most people primarily do, in fact, act out of selfish reasons. • It is a theory about human nature • Normative • Ethical egoism claims that people ought to act primarily out of selfish reasons. • It is a theory about morality.

4. 2. Psychological Egoism • People do, in fact, act selfishly. • 2 interpretations: (1) People always act in their self-interest; • (2) people are always motivated by desire to satisfy what they perceive to be their own self-interest. • (1) is clearly false.

5. Perceived Self interest • People always act in what they think to be their self interest. • Even when they act to help others (i.e., altruistically) they do so because they perceive this to be in their self-interest.

6. Psychological Egoism • If psychological egoism is true then our interest in ethics is pointless! • Why should we investigate what people ought to do or what is the right thing to do, if people are always going to act in their self-interest?

7. Is Psychological Egoism True? • Do some people act altruistically? (Wallenberg, Autrey, Kravinsky)) • Psychological egoism argues no. It claims that what appears to be altruism is only a person doing what they desire to do, which might be to help others. • However, because the person is doing what they desire, they are acting out of self-interest (i.e., what they want to do).

8. Desires and Obligations • It is simply false that we always do what we desire most. • It does not follow from the fact that a person chose act A over B, that he or she desires A more than B. • There might be other reasons, other than desire, that motivates our choice. • There might also be different kinds of desires: (physical desires, emotional desires, moral desires, aesthetic desire, career desires, etc.)

9. Desires and egoism • If psychological egoism states that what people choose is what people desire, and to act in accordance with one’s desire is the same as to act in one’s self-interest, then the theory becomes trivial, because it is always true, except in cases where a person is coerced to act.

10. Desire vs. Self-Interest • Psychological egoism does not claim that people always act in accordance with desire (interpreted broadly), but rather that people always act in their apparent self-interest. • So, even if people act in accordance with their desire (they do what they want), if what they desire is to help others, then they are not acting in their self-interest.

11. Altruism, good feeling and egoism • Psychological egoist might argue that even Mother Theresa of Calcutta who devoted all her life to helping others is an egoist, because this is what made her feel good. • This argument conflates the consequences of one’s actions with the motives of one’s actions. • It might be true that performing a certain act of kindness produces in me great pleasure; however it does not follow from this that the reason why I performed the act was because of that pleasure. • It can still be true that the reason I performed the act was because it was the ethically right thing to do.

12. 3. Ethical Egoism • Ethical egoism is the view that you ought always to act in your self-interest. • It is not the view that you ought to act in your self-interest and the interest of others. • It does not preclude you from acting in the interest of others if it is in your self-interest to do so.

13. 4. Arguments For Ethical Egoism • Altruism is self-defeating • Ayn Rand’s Argument • Ethical Egoism leads to common sense morality.

14. 4.1 Altruism is self-defeating • When we try to help others, we usually don’t do a good job at it. • Each of us knows our wants and desire better than anyone else, therefore, we are each in the best situation to help ourselves. • No one can help you like yourself. • There is something degrading in making others the object of our charity. • Objections…

15. 4.2 AynRand Argument • We have only one life to live; each person’s individual life is precious. • Altruism states that we should give up our lives for the sake of others. Therefore, it does not treat our individual life with the integrity and respect it deserves. • Ethical egoism state that we should look out for our lives and what is best for it. Therefore, it is the only theory that treats one’s life with the value and respect it deserves. • Thus we should reject altruism and accept egoism. • Objections…

16. 4.3 Ethical Egoism leads to common sense morality. • What is in our self-interest is to help others, not lie, not harm others, keep promises, etc. • If we consider self-interest in the log run and broadly, it might be argued that many of the common sense moral precepts we accept can be follow from and can be grounded in a moral theory of egoism. • Objections…

17. 5.arguments Against Ethical Egoism • Ethical egoism endorses wickedness • Ethical egoism is logically inconsistent. • Ethical egoism is arbitrary

18. 5.1 Ethical egoism endorses wickedness • There are cases in which our self-interest dictates that we perform actions that are intuitively and self-evidently morally reprehensible. • “Parents fed a baby acid so that they could fake a lawsuit, claiming the baby’s formula was tainted” or A 60-year old man shot his letter carrier seven times because he was $90,000 in debt and thought that being in federal prison would be better than being homeless.” • Any theory that supports such act must be flawed.

19. 5.2 Ethical egoism is logically inconsistent. • If John’s performing act A is in his self-interest, then John has a moral obligation to perform act A. Moreover, doing act A is the right thing to do. • If Mary’s preventing John from performing act A is in Mary’s self-interest, then Mary has a moral obligation to do so, and preventing John from performing act A is the right thing to do. • If John is an ethical egoist he believes that the moral thing to do is to act in one’s self interest. Therefore, he must also believe that doing act A and prevent him from doing act A are both moral obligations and the right thing to do, which is contradictory.

20. Ethical Egoism • Universal Ethical Egoism: everyone ought to look out for their self-interest and the interest of others only to the extent that it promotes their self-interest. • Individual Ethical Egoism: I ought to look out for my own self interest and the interest of others only to the extent that it promotes my self-interest. • The latter might avoid the contradiction but runs into another difficulty.

21. 5.3 Ethical egoism is arbitrary • The Principle of Equal Treatment states that unless one has good justification to do so, people should be treated equally. • Racism is the view that we should treat a person differently simply because of the color of their skin; it thus contradicts the Principle of Equal Treatment. • All forms of unjustified discrimination have a similar problem. • Ethical Egoism contradicts the Principle of Equal Treatment because, all things being equal, it always puts one’s interest above others without any rational justification for doing so.