Ethical Egoism Is Good

Every person has their own perspective of ethics. Each human being has their own set of moral rules, or beliefs, that guide them in their behavior. Though there are quite a few philosophical theories to which a person may rest their convictions, ethical egoism is among the ones most debated. In this paper, I will argue as to why ethical egoism is not a good philosophy to follow.
Ethical egoism is the normative theory that it is always morally right to encourage a person's own good. A normative theory is a hypotheses, or statement, that dictates what is right or wrong, and just, or unjust, in a society. Therefore, ethical egoism is the hypothesis that one ought to only promote one's own self-interest of action in order to be the motivation, or achieve one's own goals. Not to be confused with psychological egoism, which is the doctrine that everyone does act for the benefit of their own self-interest, ethical egoism is the doctrine of the idea …show more content…
Ethical egoist may argue that behaving according to one's self-interest is not necessarily a bad thing. It can often be good because self-love is a virtue, but it is not the only virtue. Furthermore, the egoist might argue that morality is not the only value in life so at some point we should compromise on it. Each of us knows what is best for their own self and best knows what he/she wants. A sympathetic pro to this view would be that every person's basic needs would be met and that there would be a great sense of personal identity throughout society. Accordingly, ethical egoism allows you the freedom of choosing how you want to act and the freedom of not being altruistic, or charitable, which is degrading to an egoist. They believe altruism makes a person dependent and, in return, resentful towards others. Over all, the main reason for ethical egoism is that we do, automatically, seek self-interest without even realizing it at times, so basically we just