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LECTURE 5 & 6 Ethical Egoism
Some Hard Facts of Life
• Several million children each year die from
preventable poverty and disease.
• In Darfur in recent years an average of 10,000
people have died each month over the past
year-and-a-half from disease and other preventable
causes.
Some Hard Facts of Life
Do you care?
Should you care?
Two Points
1. Rachels states that we tend to care about people physically closer to us. This is a fact about human psychology.
2. He also rightly states that we assume that we have natural duties to others simply because “they are people who could be helped or harmed by what we do.” p.69
Ethical Egoism
Ethical Egoism : Each person ought to pursue his or
her own interests exclusively. Our only duty is to do
what is best for ourselves.
• N.B. this theory is challenges one of the basic
elements of ethics: the impartiality requirement.
• Rachel’s notes it is “not easy to refute”. p.54
Psychological Egoism
Psychological Egoism: each person does in fact
pursue his or her own self interests exclusively.
• If Psychological Egoism is true, then there is
major implications for ethics - to say the least!
• For example, we couldn’t be altruistic.
Altruism
Altruism: any act that seeks to advance the good of others for their own sake and not for the sake of advancing the self-interest of the agent.
• Rachels refers to Wallenberg, Allsop, Kravinsky as examples of individuals who acted altruistically. p.71
Question: is their altruism only an appearance and not genuine?
Psychological Egoism: Argument 1
1. Whenever we act, we are motivated by our desires
2. If we are motivated by our desires, then we are
motivated by self-interest.
3. So whenever we act, we are motivated by self
interest.
4. Therefore, altruism is not possible
Two Replies To Argument 1
1.There seem to be some acts that we do not want to do, but feel we ought to do.
• Example: Going to war.
2. Being motivated by our desires is not the same as acting out of self-interest.
• Example: Wallenberg’s desire was to help others.
Psychological Egoism: Argument 2
1.When we act altruistically, we feel good.
2.The good feeling we get is the real motivation behind altruistic acts.
3. Therefore, altruism is impossible.
Two Replies To Argument 2
1. The psychological egoists’ account of human psychology is implausible.
2. The fact that one might have a self-interested motive does not exclude a benevolent motive.
General Point: the object of our desires is
generally not a feeling of satisfaction.
Ethical Egoism Reconsidered
• Sometimes it is said that we are best at attending
to our own needs; and that it’s degrading to meddle
in other people’s lives.
• In other words, altruism is self-defeating and life
will be more harmonious if we attend only to our
own needs.
Question: Is this plausible reasoning?
A Problem With The Self-Defeating Argument
“If we accept this line of reasoning, then we
are not being ethical egoists. Even though we
might end up behaving like egoists, our ultimate
principle is one of beneficence -- we are doing
what we think will help everyone, not merely
what we think will benefit ourselves.”
Rachels, p.77
Ayn Rand’s Argument
1. Either Ethical Altruism is true or Ethical Egoism is true.
2. If Ethical Altruism is true, then one is obligated to sacrifice one's life for the good of others.
3. It is not the case that one is obligated to sacrifice one's life for the good of others.
4. Ethical Altruism is not true.
5. Therefore, Ethical Egoism is true.
An Objection To Rand’s Argument
• In her attempt to defend Ethical Egoism, Rand
presents us with a false dichotomy.
False dichotomy: arises when the premise of an
argument presents us with a choice between two
alternatives an assumes that they are exhaustive
or exclusive or both when in fact they are not.
Ethical Egoism & Common Sense Morality
• Some have argued that Ethical Egoism is not a
revisionist doctrine at all, but compatible with
common sense morality.
• After all, don’t we have strong self-interested
reasons not to harm others, lie, cheat, keep
our promises?
• Perhaps Ethical Egoism is the foundation of
common sense social morality.
Two Objections To “Common Sense” Ethical Egoism
1. It is not always to one’s advantage to follow
the rule of common sense morality
(e.g. do not harm others).
2. Again we return to the thought that the primary
object of our concern need not always be ourselves.
• Perhaps a good reason to help a starving child is
because the child will die without our help….
Main Objection To Ethical Egoism
• Rachel’s rightly asserts that most people accept
the following principle.
Principle of Equal Treatment: We should treat
people in the same way unless there is a relevant
difference between them. (p.86)
• Of course there are many people who appear to
violate this principle (e.g. racists, sexists).
• The racist violates the principle of equal treatment
by arbitrarily giving preferential treatment to
members of his or her own race.
• The Ethical Egoist violates the principle of equal
treatment by arbitrarily giving preferential
treatment to him or herself.
• But what makes the Egoist so special?
“We should care about the interests of other
people for the same reason we care about
our own interests, for the needs and desires
are comparable to our own”
Rachels, p.87
N.B. Rachels is reminding us about the
requirement of impartiality.
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