Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.Director, The Values InstituteUniversity of San Diego

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“Look out for #1—and there is no #2”

Ethical Egoism

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Be My Valentine? “Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of self-

sacrifice. Love based on self-interest, we are admonished, is cheap and sordid. True love, we are told, is altruistic. But is it?

“Genuine love is the exact opposite. It is the most selfish experience possible, in the true sense of the term: it benefits your life in a way that involves no sacrifice of others to yourself nor of yourself to others.”

--Gary HullValentine’s Day, 1998

Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey

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Ethical Egoism Selfishness is extolled

as a virtue– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of

Selfishness

May appeal to psychological egoism as a foundation

Often very compelling for high school students

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Versions of Ethical Egoism

Personal Ethical Egoism– “I am going to act only in my own interest, and

everyone else can do whatever they want.” Individual Ethical Egoism

– “Everyone should act in my own interest.” Universal Ethical Egoism

– “Each individual should act in his or her own self interest.”

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Arguments for Ethical Egoism

There are at least three principal arguments in support of ethical egoism:

Altruism is demeaning. Acting selfishly creates a better

world. It doesn’t result in such a different

world after all.

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Altruism Is Demeaning

Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers argued that altruism was demeaning because it meant that an individual was saying that some other person was more important than that individual. Nietzsche saw this as denigrating oneself, putting oneself down by valuing oneself less than the other. This, the heart of altruism, is demeaning in Nietzsche’s eyes.

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Acting Selfishly Creates a Better World

Ethical egoists sometimes maintain that if each person took care of himself/herself, the overall effect would be to make the world a better place for everyone.– Epistemological: Each person is best suited to

know his or her own best interests.– Moral: Helping others makes them dependent,

which ultimately harms them.Reply: this justification ultimately appeals to

utilitarian principles, not the principles of ethical egoism.

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Ethical egoism doesn’t result in such a different world after all.

This argument presupposes the people in fact already act selfishly (i.e, psychological egoism) and are just pretending to be altruistic.

If psychological egoism is true, then we should admit its truth and get rid of our hypocrisy.

Reply: it may not make a big difference in a world of independent adults, but in a world with children and people at risk or in need, they would be put in further jeopardy.

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Criticisms of Ethical Egoism

Cannot be consistently universalized– But see Kalin: This works in sports.

Presupposes a world of strangers indifferent to one another.

Difficult to imagine love or even friendship from the altruist’s standpoint.

Seems to be morally insensitive

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Universalizing Ethical Egoism Can the ethical egoist consistently will that

everyone else follow the tenets of ethical egoism?– It seems to be in one’s self-interest to be selfish

oneself and yet get everyone else to act altruistically (especially if they act for your benefit). This leads to individual ethical egoism.

Some philosophers such as Jesse Kalin have argued that in sports we consistently universalize ethical egoism: we intend to win, but we want our opponents to try as hard as they can!

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Ethical Egoism: a philosophy for a world of strangers

Some philosophers have argued that ethical egoism is, at best, appropriate to living in a world of strangers that you do not care about.

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Ethical Egoism and Friendship

Can ethical egoists be good friends?– If friendship involves (among other

things) being concerned about other people for their own sake, then this seems something beyond the reach of the egoist.

– Ethical egoists can help their friends if they believe there is a long-term payoff for doing so.

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Ethical Egoism and Moral Sensitivity

Can the ethical egoist be sensitive to the suffering of others?– Such sensitivity seems to presuppose

caring about other people for their own sake.

– Moral sensitivity presupposes that the suffering of others exerts a moral “pull” on the individual—something that the ethical egoist does not recognize.

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The Truths in Ethical Egoism

Sometimes self-interest masquerades as altruism

Ethics should not deny the importance of self-interest

Self-love is a virtue, but it is not the only virtue Ethical egoism mistakes a part of the picture for the whole picture

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AristotleTocqueville’s

“Self-interest rightly understood”

Egoism, Altruism, and the Ideal World

Ideally, we seek a society in which self-interest and regard for others converge—the green zone.

Egoism at the expense of others and altruism at the expense of self-interest both create worlds in which goodness and self-regard are mutually exclusive—the yellow zone.

No one want the red zone, which is against both self-interest and regard for others.

HighAltruism

Low Egoism

LowAltruism

HighEgoism

Self-sacrificingaltruism

Self-interestat the expense

of others

Self-interestand regardfor othersconverge

Not beneficialeither to self

or others

Kant

Hobbes’sState of Nature,

Nietzsche?

Drug addictionAlcoholism, etc.