Chapter 6

1. Ethics: Discovering
Right and Wrong
Louis P. Pojman and James Fieser
8th edition

2. Chapter Six: Egoism,
Self-Interest, and Altruism
 Nestlé’s infant formula
 One of the most notorious examples of selfishness in the
business world.
 Its marketing in developing countries lured poor mothers
into infant formula dependency.
 Its use required 70% of a family’s income, so mothers
diluted it with contaminated local water, resulting in the
death of millions of infants.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

3. 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.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

4. Psychological Egoism
 This view claims to be a description of human nature: It
makes no difference what action I perform, all my
actions are selfishly motivated.
 Proof to support this view:
 The argument from self-satisfaction
 The argument from self-deception
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

5. The Argument from
Self-Satisfaction
 Everyone is an egoist because everyone always tries to
do what will bring him or her satisfaction.
 For any act A, everyone does A in order to obtain
satisfaction.
 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.
 We always try to do what we most want to do and, as a
consequence of success in carrying out the act,
experience satisfaction.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

6. The Paradox of Hedonism
 The best way to get happiness is to forget about it.
 You have a higher probability of attaining happiness if
you aim at accomplishing worthy goals that will
indirectly bring about happiness.
 This seems to suggest that psychological egoism has
severe problems.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

7. The Argument from
Self-Deception (1 of 2)
 The psychological egoist alters the interpretation of S to
include subconscious motivations.
 The 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.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

8. The Argument from
Self-Deception(2 of 2)
 Problems with this argument:
 It seems to be an unfalsifiable dogma.
 It commits the fallacy of unwarranted generalization.
 We may not be entirely egoists or necessarily selfish.
 Predominant psychological egoism may be true, but it
doesn’t rule out the possibility of disinterested action.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

9. Ethical Egoism (1 of 2)
 Morally right actions maximize the best interest of
oneself, even when it conflicts with others’ interests.
 However, this viewpoint does not maintain that every
person ought to serve the best interests of me
specifically.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

10. Ethical Egoism (2 of 2)
 Arguments in favor of this view:
 The argument from strict psychological egoism
 Hobbes’s argument from predominant psychological
egoism
 Smith’s economic argument
 Rand’s argument for the virtue of selfishness
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

11. 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 (ought implies can).
3. Altruistic acts involve putting other people’s interests
ahead of our own.
4. But, altruism contradicts psychological egoism and so is
impossible (by premises 1 and 3).
5. Therefore, altruistic acts are never morally obligatory
(by premises 2 and 4).
This argument does not show that we are morally obligated
to perform any acts whatsoever, so it fails.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

12. 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 with Hobbes’s argument: It assumes we cannot
do any better than be egoists, so we should be as
strategic about our egoism as possible.
 His theory is plausible but not foolproof.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

13. Smith’s Economic Argument
(1 of 2)
 Individual self-interest in a competitive marketplace
produces a state of optimal goodness for society at
large.
 An “invisible hand” almost magically directs the
economy when we pursue our self-interest.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

14. Smith’s Economic Argument
(2 of 2)
 It leaves in place a two-tier system:
 Tier 2: General goal—social utility
 Tier 1: Individual motivation—egoistic
 Problems with this argument:
 It is unclear whether you can transpose economic methods
into personal relations.
 It is not clear that classical laissez-faire capitalism works.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

15. Rand’s Argument for the
Virtue of Selfishness (1 of 3)
 Selfishness is a virtue and altruism is a vice—a totally
destructive idea that undermines individual worth.
 Every individual has a duty to seek his or her own good
first, regardless of how it affects others.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

16. Rand’s Argument for the
Virtue of Selfishness (2 of 3)
 Happiness is our highest goal, and we have a moral duty
to attempt to reach it.
 Altruism prescribes that we sacrifice our interests and
lives for the good of others.
 Therefore, altruism is incompatible with the goal of
happiness.
 Ethical egoism prescribes that we seek our own
happiness exclusively.
 Therefore, ethical egoism is the correct moral theory.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

17. Rand’s Argument for the
Virtue of Selfishness (3 of 3)
 Problems with this argument:
 It appears to be flawed by the fallacy of a false dilemma.
 Rand slides back and forth between advocating selfishness
and self-interest, which are different concepts.
 Thus, Rand’s thesis is not supported by a good argument,
and it is contradicted by our common moral experience.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

18. Arguments Against
Ethical Egoism
 The inconsistent outcomes argument
 The publicity argument
 The paradox of ethical egoism
 The argument from counterintuitive consequences
 The problem of future generations
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

19. The Inconsistent
Outcomes Argument
 Brian Medlin argues that ethical egoism cannot be true
because it fails to meet a necessary condition of
morality—being a guide to action.
 Jesse Kalin responds that we can separate our beliefs
about ethical situations from our desires.
 Thus, this argument fails.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

20. The Publicity Argument
 An egoist cannot publicly advertise his or her egoistic
project without harming that very project.
 The egoist could publicly advocate standard principles
of traditional morality to keep society from falling
apart, while secretly holding to a personal egoistic
moral agenda.
 Thus, egoism could be a consistent system, but its
solipsistic-directed norms count against its viability.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

21. 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.
 The pursuit of genuine friendship counts against ethical
egoism.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

22. The Argument from
Counterintuitive Consequences
 Ethical egoism is an absolute moral system that not only
permits egoistic behavior, but also demands it.
 Helping others at one’s own expense is not only not
required, but it is also morally wrong.
 This seems counterintuitive because it goes against our
normal conception of fairness.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

23. 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.
 Most of us find it intuitively obvious that we have
obligations to future people, so ethical egoism cannot
be a sufficient theory.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

24. Conclusion
 Martin Luther said that humanity is like a man who
mounts a horse and falls off on the opposite side,
especially when he tries to compensate for his previous
exaggerations.
 Ethical egoism falls off the horse on the other side
because it embraces self-exaltation and tries to
compensate for an irrational, guilt-ridden, altruism of
the morality of self-effacement.
 Only one who avoids both extremes is likely to ride the
horse of happiness to its goal.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.