Transcript Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong

Chapter Six:
Egoism, Self-Interest,
and Altruism
Nestlé's infant formula, the notorious example of
selfishness in the business world
Two Main Types of Egoism
Psychological
Egoism:
We always do that act that we perceive to
be in our own best self-interest.
Ethical Egoism:
Everyone ought always to do those acts that
will serve his or her own best self-interest.
The Argument from
Self-Satisfaction
S.
Everyone is an egoist because everyone
always tries to do what will bring him or her
satisfaction
S1. For any act A, everyone does A in order
to obtain satisfaction
The Argument from
Self-Satisfaction
S2.
We all do the act that we most want to
do, and as a consequence, we are satisfied by
the success of carrying out the act.
S3. We always try to do what we most want
to do and, as a consequence of success in
carrying out the act, experience satisfaction.
The Paradox of Hedonism
The
best way to get happiness is to forget
about it.
Worthy goals will indirectly bring about
happiness.
Focus on the goals, not the happiness.
Seems to suggest psychological egoism has
severe problems
The Argument from SelfDeception
Alter
interpretation of S to include
subconscious motivations.
Thesis now states that sometimes we are
self-deceived about our motivation, but
whenever we overcome self-deception and
really look deep into our motivational
schemes, we find an essential selfishness.
Ethical Egoism
Everyone
ought to always do those acts that
will best serve his or her own best selfinterest.
Morally right actions are those that
maximize the best interest of oneself.
Does not maintain that every person ought
to serve the best interests of me specifically.
The Argument from Strict
Psychological Egoism
1. We all always seek to maximize our own
self-interest.
2. If one cannot do an act, one has no
obligation to do that act.
3. Altruistic acts involve putting other
people's interests ahead of our own.
The Argument from Strict
Psychological Egoism
4. But, altruism contradicts psychological
egoism and so is impossible
5. Therefore, altruistic acts are never morally
obligatory.
Hobbes's Argument from
Predominant Psychological
Egoism
Selfishness forces us into chaos, and
selfishness forces us to solve the problem
through mutually agreed-on moral codes.
Problem: assumes we cannot do any better
than be egoists, so we should be as strategic
about our egoism as possible.
Smith's Economic Argument
Individual
self-interest in a competitive
marketplace produces a state of optimal
goodness for society at large
The result of an “invisible hand”
A two-tier system
–Tier 2 General goal: social utility
–Tier 1 Individual motivation: egoistic
Rand's Argument for the Virtue
of Selfishness
Selfishness
is a virtue
Altruism a vice, a totally destructive idea
that leads to the undermining of individual
worth
Every individual has a duty to seek his or
her own good first, regardless of how it
affects others
Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
1.The
Inconsistent Outcomes
Argument:
Ethical Egoism cannot be true because it
fails to meet a necessary
condition of morality – being a guide to
action
Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
1.The
Publicity Argument:
An egoist cannot publicly advertise his
egoistic project without harming that
very project.
Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
1.The
Paradox of Ethical Egoism:
To reach the goal of egoism one must
give up egoism and become (to some
extent) an altruist, the very antithesis of
egoism.
Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
1.The
Argument from Counterintuitive
Consequences:
It is an absolute moral system that not
only permits egoistic behavior, but also
demands it.
Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
The Problem of Future Generations:
Egoism seems unable to deal with the
problem of obligations to posterity.
The egoist gains nothing by preserving
natural resources for future generations that
do not yet exist and thus can give no benefit
to the egoist.
5.
Evolution and Altruism
Sociobiology
theorizes that social structures
and behavioral patterns, including morality,
have a biological base, explained by
evolutionary theory.
There is a difference between pure altruism
and reciprocal altruism but we have a duty to
both kinds of altruism.