Transcript Morality and Self-Interest

Morality and SelfInterest
Vice and Virtue in Everyday
Life
Chapter 3
The Ring of Gyges,
Plato
► Humans do what is just because they
lack the power to do wrong.
► The story of the Ring of Gyges
illustrates this point.
► Who is happier, the just man with the
bad reputation, or the unjust man with
the good reputation?
Of the State of Men
without Civil Society,
Hobbes
► Egoism
and the state of nature
► Why do we form a society?
► On the benefits of forming a society,
rather than remaining in the state of
nature
Of Self-Love, Hume
► Hume
rejects both ethical and
psychological egoism.
► Our love of our fellow human beings is
not mere self-love.
► We should not reduce love, friendship,
and compassion to self-love.
Hume
► Observation
and experience tell us
that there are unselfish dispostions
and affections.
► Human nature, in conclusion, is not
egoistic.
The Unselfishness
Trap,
Browne
► The Unselfishness Trap=the belief that
I should put other people’s happiness
before my own.
► If we live for others, the world will not
be better.
► We shouldn’t do things to appear to be
unselfish.
Browne
► Not
all people are made happy by
making others happy.
► Everyone is ultimately selfish, because
we all do what we think will make us
feel good.
Egoism and Moral
Skepticism,
Rachels
► Psychological egoism and ethical
egoism
► Rachels discusses 2 general
arguments for psychological egoism,
and why they are flawed.
► Selfishness is not the same as selfinterest.
Rachels
►A
false dichotomy exists between
actions being done from self-interest
or altruistic motives.
► Concern for one’s own welfare is
compatible with concern for the
welfare of others.
Rachels
► Rachels
also argues against ethical
egoism, in part because sympathy is
fundamental to human nature.
The Virtue of
Selfishness, Rand
► Selfishness
has wrongly been
considered to be a vice.
► On altruism, who the beneficiary of an
action is determines the morality of
that action.
Rand
► Altruism
permits no concept of justice,
so we must redeem the concept of
selfishness.
Egoism, Self-Interest,
and Altruism, Pojman
► Pojman
restates Rand’s argument for
ethical egoism.
► Rand’s argument commits the fallacy
of a false dilemma.
Pojman
► Happiness
comes when we avoid the
extremes of ethical egoism and the
morality of self-effacement.
Why Not Be a Bad
Person? McGinn
► The
good life of virtue is selfjustifying.
► McGinn’s shortlist of virtues, i.e. the
BIG FOUR: kindness, honesty, justice,
and independence
McGinn
► The
virtuous person is bold and
attractive, the vicious person cowardly
and unattractive.
► McGinn finally offers a list of moral
maxims.
Why Act Morally?
Singer
► Human
nature and human happiness
► Can psychopaths be truly happy?
► Does life have any meaning?
► The psychopath’s life focuses inwardly
and on short-term pleasures.
Singer
► The
normal person’s life is better
because she lives for outward and farreaching purposes.
► Ethics takes on the point of view of the
universe.