Philosophy 160

5 Pages 1363 Words

Ethnical Egoism maintains the claim that people always act selfishly, to foster their own self-interest or happiness. The Collegiate Websters Dictonary defines egoism as “a doctrine that individual self-interest is the actual motive of all conscious action.”
If this claim is true, ethics is in trouble, because most traditional ethical systems demand at least occasional altruism. If Ethnical Egoism were true, altruism would not be possible, there over making society as we know it cease. We would have to explain apparent altruism as self-interest. Acting in a self – interested way, in all cases would be wrong because there are situations, where instances occur, that would override the demands of an Ethnical Egoists standpoint.
Ethnical Egoism is a surprisingly weak claim. People do not always and invariably act to foster the own self – interest. Instances occur when cases that falsifies the generalization that all human acts are selfish. Many people act in an unselfish manner, making professions out of there actions. Society must realize the happiness achieved in the long run by sacrificing “a self interested attitude” in the present is greater. It certainly appears that people sometimes act in ways that are not in accordance with their own interests: the solider that jumps on a grenade to save his fellow troops, the stranger who runs into the busy street to save a stray cat. That is, you insist on claiming that people are “really” acting selfishly even when they appear to be acting unselfishly. But that strategy has two problems. First, if all human actions are self-interested, then “self-interested actions” become, by definition, identical with “actions”. That is, these two expressions denote exactly the same set of actions, and thus are substitutable for each other. It then becomes impossible to disprove the claim that all human actions are self-interested, because the claim, after substitution, becomes impos...