Download bYTEBoss 1133050018_377581

“Look out for #1—
and there is no #2”
Ethical Egoism
Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
University of San Diego
5/22/2017
Director, The Values Institute
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
1
Be My Valentine?

“Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of selfsacrifice. 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 Hull
Valentine’s Day, 1998
Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
2
Ethical Egoism

Selfishness is extolled
as a virtue
– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of
Selfishness


5/22/2017
May appeal to
psychological egoism
as a foundation
Often very compelling
for high school
students
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
3
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.”
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
4
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
5
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
6
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
7
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
8
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
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
9
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!
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
10
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
11
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
12
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.
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
13
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
5/22/2017
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
14
Egoism, Altruism, and
the Ideal World
Aristotle



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 selfinterest and regard for others.
5/22/2017
Tocqueville’s
“Self-interest rightly understood”
High
Altruism
Kant
Self-sacrificing
altruism
Low
Egoism
Not beneficial
either to self
or others
Drug addiction
Alcoholism, etc.
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman
Self-interest
and regard
for others
converge
High
Egoism
Self-interest
at the expense
of others
Low
Altruism
Hobbes’s
State of Nature,
Nietzsche?
15