Ethical Egoism Word

William Jones GAO
Ethical Egoism
A consequentialist approach to morality is one where the outcome of the action is the main factor when deciding upon morality; whereas a deontologist will regard some acts as being flat-out wrong; for example, stealing or killing; and will regard the consequences as of Ethical Egoism states that one should always do the act which will promote the greatest personal good. secondary importance. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) says that prior to mankind having a social structure as we would know it there was a state of nature where every individual pursues what benefits him most. he then goes on to say that this is unproductive for the species as a whole as we are competing against one another. Therefore it is better for everyone if we follow rules which institute co-operation between each other; a social contract that will benefit us in the long run because everyone else will not be trying to harm us and instead will benefit us in many cases. This view point; of benefiting society in order to benefit yourself and avoid an anarchic world; is held by enlightened ethical egoist.
Psychological and Ethical Egoism

Psychological egoism is the claim that humans are primarily motivated by self-interest; we are naturally inclined to maximise our own personal advantage. Alternatively an ethical egoist will say that one should do what is best for oneself, we should prioritise our personal goals over other objectives. Yet an ethical egoist would also see that it is better to work together as this will benefit you far more in the long run than acting selfishly; the Prisoners Dilemma is an example of this. Thus the development of society is just as natural as anything else because it too probably arose as a result of evolution, future generations would benefit from an altruistic way of life as there were more offspring.
Kants Universalizability Principle

While an ethical egoist decides to help the community because he reasons that the consequences of his action will benefit him in the future; on the other hand Kant reasons that as we are all rational beings that any rational decision to apply to all of us in the same way. Following this, his principle states that we must see if we can universalize a moral law before saying it is a moral imperative. He is not asking if in any situation if the consequences of the act are good; only if the action can be pragmatically applied to everyone throughout the many circumstances in which it would come up; can everyone was to live by that ethical law.
Evaluation
Opposition: There is an assumption made by the egoist to move from the pyschological point that we are all selfish by nature to the fact that we have a moral duty to act in our own self-interests. Rebuttal: This might not be the argument of the egoist however, he may be saying that as we are all selfish by nature it would be foolish to propose that we would do anything but act in our own self-interest.
William Jones GAO
Opposition: Yet surely we do care for others as well; the examples of family being one. Parents will raise the children although this brings them no apparent benefit. A charity worker behaves very altruistically and yet the egoist would maintain that this is an act in ones own interest. Rebuttal: The egoist replies that we only do these actions in order to satisfy our own egos; we only give to charity so we can believe that we arent misers, we raise children so we can have the joy of watching them grow up and caring for them. Opposition: Yet the egoist is unable to prove that we give to charity only to flatter our egos or that we simply feel good only for having done a good thing. This mainly trips up the psychological egoist whose main problem also lies in the fact that then every act is a selfish act because it is done solely for ones own interest. Another cunning weakness in this theory is that if you had to give advice or tell someone what to do then you would have to tell them to do whatever would benefit you and not the person asking you. Rebuttal: Although there is no distinct answer to the latter problem it could be that this is the exception to the rule and that the best thing to do would be to tell that person to behave in the way an egoist would behave because this would benefit society more and therefore the benefit of his actions should affect the advice giver as well; alternatively it is possible to say that if advice was given where he would do what is best for the advice-giver that this would in the long run be bad for the advice giver who would have to face trouble from others for manipulating people, ie a boss at work or a parental figure.

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William Jones GAO

Psychological and Ethical Egoism

Kants Universalizability Principle

William Jones GAO

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