ETHICAL EGOISM
Is there a duty to help
starving people?
6.1 Is there a duty to help
starving people?
Every year, millions of people die from
malnutrition and related health problems.
According to the executive director of UNICEF,
15,000 children die this way everyday.
For affluent people, money is spent not only on
necessities of life but for countless luxuries:
• Fine automobiles
• Fancy clothes
• Stereos
• Sports
• Movies
Few of us believe that our luxuries are that
important. We could forgo these luxuries and give
the money for hunger relief instead.
Why aren’t we doing it?
The fact that we’re not doing it suggests we
regard our luxuries more important than their lives.
Why aren’t we doing it?
• We’re insulated from it. We hardly ever think of
the problem,
• We see them as statistics, and
• We only respond to a crisis.
What should we do?
What should we do?
Morality requires that we balance our interests
against the interests of others. But this involves a
general assumption of our moral duties.
Do we have moral duties beyond those we
create? e.g. debts, promises
Ethical Egoism
Ethical
What it is:
Egoism
• An idea that believes we have no “natural” duties
to other people.
• Each person ought to pursue his or her own self-
interest exclusively.
What it isn’t:
• It doesn’t forbid helping others especially if their
interests coincide with yours or if helping others
creates a benefit for yourself.
• It doesn’t imply pursuing one whatever wants for
momentary pleasure. It endorses selfishness, not
foolishness.
Three Arguments in favor of
Ethical Egoism
The Argument that Altruism
is Self-Defeating
If we set out to be our brother’s keeper we would
often bungle the job and end up doing more harm than
good.
The policy of “looking out for others” is an
offensive intrusion into other people’s privacy; it is
essentially a policy of minding other people’s business.
Making other people the object of one’s charity is
degrading to them.
Ayn Rand’s Argument
1. A person has only one life to live. If we value the
individual that is the individual has a moral worth then we
must agree that this life is of supreme importance.
Afterall, it’s all one has, and all one is.
2. The ethics of altruism regards the life of the individual
as something one must be ready to sacrifice for the sake
of others. Therefore, the ethics of altruism does not take
seriously the value of the human individual.
3. Thus ethical egoism is the philosophy that we ought
to accept.
Ethical Egoism as compatible
with common sense morality
1. The duty not to harm others
2. The duty not to lie
3. The duty to keep our promises
Thomas Hobbes suggested that the principle of
Ethical Egoism leads to nothing less than the
Golden Rule: We should “do unto others” because if
we do, others will be more likely to “do unto us”
Three Arguments against
Ethical Egoism
6.2 Three Arguments against
Ethical Egoism
Examples:
• To increase his profit, a pharmacist filled
prescription for cancer patients using watered
down drugs.
• A nurse raped two patients while that are
unconscious.
By looking at these examples we say;
That someone could benefit/gain something for
himself. But of course he should avoid being caught.
The Argument that Ethical Egoism
cannot handle conflicts of interest
In Kurt Baier’s book The Moral
Point of View (1958) he argues that
Ethical Egoism cannot be correct
because it cannot provide solution for
conflicts of interest. “We need morals
rules” , only because our interest
sometimes comes into conflict. If they
never conflicted then there would be no
problem to solve and hence no need for
that kind of guidance that morality
provides.
Examples
Mr. John and Mr. Fabs are running for presidency. It
is in their interest to win, but only one person can be
elected as the president. If Mr. John will be elected it
would be against Mr. Fabs interest and vice versa. Then
Mr. John's winning would be wrong because he is being
a hindrance for Mr. Fabs in pursuing his interest and
duty. In order for this two to settle one must have an
interest that would not prevent the other or shall we
say one of them must give up his interest of winning,
but Ethical Egoism does not do that.
Pursue your own interest.
The Argument that Ethical
Egoism is Logically Inconsistent
According to philosophers no theory can be
true if it is self-contradictory.
Example:
Consider again Mr. Fabs and Mr. John. It is in Mr.
John’s interest to kill Mr. Fabs and obviously, it is in
Mr. John’s interest to prevent it.
Examples
Suppose it is each person’s duty to do what is
in his own best interest.
1. It is in Mr. John’s best interest to kill Mr. Fabs.
2. It is in Mr. Fab‘s best interest to prevent Mr. John
from killing him.
3. Therefore it is Mr. John’s duty to kill Mr. Fabs, and
Mr. Fabs duty is to prevent Mr. John from doing it
4. But it is wrong to prevent someone from doing
his duty.
Examples
5. Therefore it is wrong for Mr. Fab to prevent Mr.
John from killing him
6. Therefore it is both wrong and not wrong for Mr.
Fab to prevent Mr. John from killing him
7. But no act can be both wrong and not wrong:
that is a self-contradiction
8. Therefore the assumption with which we started
that it is each person’s duty to do what is in his
own best interest cannot be true.
The Argument that Ethical
Egoism is Unacceptably Arbitrary
In The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James
Rachels presented this argument as the deepest
criticism of ethical egoism.
He believes the egoist thinks like racists and sexists
because they believe their interests ultimately
count for more simply because they are in the
“right” race or gender.
That is, “there is an US and THEM, and we’re
better because we are US and they are THEM. So,
we can treat them however we please.”
We can justify treating people differently only if
we can show that there is some factual difference
between us and them that is relevant to justifying
the difference in treatment.
If we can find no relevant difference between
us and them, then we must admit that if our needs
should be met, so should the others’.
It is this realization that we are on a par with
one another, that is the reason why our morality
must include some recognition of the needs of
others and why, then, Ethical Egoism fails as a
moral theory.