Ethical Egoism and Self-Reliance Argument
Ethics, Fall 2015
Meghan Higley
My aim in this paper is to argue that the self-reliance objection does not show that Ethical Egoism is false. I will argue that Ethical Egoism never tells us to mind our own business and keep to ourselves. Ethical Egoism says that human beings always should morally do whatever will benefit themselves the most. The Self-Reliance argument says that the most effective way of making everyone better off is for each person to mind its own business, and tend only to his own needs. We ought to take the most effective path to making everyone better off. Therefore, we each ought to mind our own business and tend only to our own needs. Minding our own business and keeping to ourselves will not morally benefit human beings, therefore the objection is false.
Ethical Egoism is a greedy form of physiological …show more content…
For example, some might argue that premise two of the argument is false. The argument’s emphasis on our doing will improve everyone’s well-being is not something that the egoist can accept (Landau, p. 110). Ethical egoist’s moral duty or goal is to maximize personal benefit. The only way that egoistic people help others, or have any general good or morals, is when doing so will maximize their own self-interest and no other circumstance.
I do not think that this worry should move us, since…
Of course, there are other objections to Ethical Egoism. Perhaps the most important is that… The basic response to this would go as follows…
In conclusions, I’ve argued that the self-reliance objection to Ethical Egoism is a failure, since,…The most obvious response to my argument, since….While this is not the last word on the matter, I think that, given what I’ve stated here, we should tentatively accept the conclusion that Ethical Egoism should not be rejected because it instructs us to be self-reliant by minding our own business and tend to our own
Ethics, Fall 2015
Meghan Higley
My aim in this paper is to argue that the self-reliance objection does not show that Ethical Egoism is false. I will argue that Ethical Egoism never tells us to mind our own business and keep to ourselves. Ethical Egoism says that human beings always should morally do whatever will benefit themselves the most. The Self-Reliance argument says that the most effective way of making everyone better off is for each person to mind its own business, and tend only to his own needs. We ought to take the most effective path to making everyone better off. Therefore, we each ought to mind our own business and tend only to our own needs. Minding our own business and keeping to ourselves will not morally benefit human beings, therefore the objection is false.
Ethical Egoism is a greedy form of physiological …show more content…
For example, some might argue that premise two of the argument is false. The argument’s emphasis on our doing will improve everyone’s well-being is not something that the egoist can accept (Landau, p. 110). Ethical egoist’s moral duty or goal is to maximize personal benefit. The only way that egoistic people help others, or have any general good or morals, is when doing so will maximize their own self-interest and no other circumstance.
I do not think that this worry should move us, since…
Of course, there are other objections to Ethical Egoism. Perhaps the most important is that… The basic response to this would go as follows…
In conclusions, I’ve argued that the self-reliance objection to Ethical Egoism is a failure, since,…The most obvious response to my argument, since….While this is not the last word on the matter, I think that, given what I’ve stated here, we should tentatively accept the conclusion that Ethical Egoism should not be rejected because it instructs us to be self-reliant by minding our own business and tend to our own