I. Introduction
Every day, about 18,000 children under the age of 5 die most commonly from preventable causes. Every year, millions of people die from malnutrition . All these deaths could be prevented if more people donated to humanitarian causes. However, most people do not. Instead of sacrificing and giving our money to foundations for example, to help the children who die of preventable causes, we instead opt to use our money not just on necessities but also on personal luxuries. We buy for ourselves jewelry, electronic gadgets, knickknacks, and more without even giving a second thought to giving our money instead to the needy.
An ethical egoist would agree with this course of action. Ethical Egoism is defined as the idea that each person should pursue his or her own self-interest exclusively. We have no duty innate or acquired duty towards others. Ethical Egoism holds that our only is toward ourselves and that we should only do what is best for ourselves in the long run. The only time other people matter is when they can benefit us. This is actually a concept that many people today live by. This paper will serve to (II) Distinguish and Isolate the philosophy of Ethical Egoism from its counterparts, (III) Explain and reconstruct the first argument for Ethical Egoism, (IV) Explain and reconstruct the …show more content…
Distinguishing the philosophy of Ethical Egoism
Ethical Egoism is the idea that each person ought to pursue his or her own self-interest exclusively. This is not to be confused with Psychological Egoism. Psychological egoism states that we do in fact pursue our own self-interests as people. Psychological Egoism is in some ways a roadblock for Ethical Egoism because if it were true that every human does in fact behave selfishly and pursue actions that only benefit themselves, then there would be no purpose in analyzing and discussing what a person "ought" to do, because whatever it is, Psychological Egoism would prove, that they weren't going to do it
Every day, about 18,000 children under the age of 5 die most commonly from preventable causes. Every year, millions of people die from malnutrition . All these deaths could be prevented if more people donated to humanitarian causes. However, most people do not. Instead of sacrificing and giving our money to foundations for example, to help the children who die of preventable causes, we instead opt to use our money not just on necessities but also on personal luxuries. We buy for ourselves jewelry, electronic gadgets, knickknacks, and more without even giving a second thought to giving our money instead to the needy.
An ethical egoist would agree with this course of action. Ethical Egoism is defined as the idea that each person should pursue his or her own self-interest exclusively. We have no duty innate or acquired duty towards others. Ethical Egoism holds that our only is toward ourselves and that we should only do what is best for ourselves in the long run. The only time other people matter is when they can benefit us. This is actually a concept that many people today live by. This paper will serve to (II) Distinguish and Isolate the philosophy of Ethical Egoism from its counterparts, (III) Explain and reconstruct the first argument for Ethical Egoism, (IV) Explain and reconstruct the …show more content…
Distinguishing the philosophy of Ethical Egoism
Ethical Egoism is the idea that each person ought to pursue his or her own self-interest exclusively. This is not to be confused with Psychological Egoism. Psychological egoism states that we do in fact pursue our own self-interests as people. Psychological Egoism is in some ways a roadblock for Ethical Egoism because if it were true that every human does in fact behave selfishly and pursue actions that only benefit themselves, then there would be no purpose in analyzing and discussing what a person "ought" to do, because whatever it is, Psychological Egoism would prove, that they weren't going to do it