Characteristics Of Ethical Egoism

In the modern study of human beings there are two theories that are seen as problematic and haunting. These two troublesome theories are known as psychological and ethical egoism. Psychological egoism states that human beings can only be driven by one’s own personal advantage. Even if it seems like a person is performing a task out of the pure kindness of their hearts, this theory suggests that ultimately they do this to obtain either direct or indirect benefits. In other words, people are not physically able to do something for someone else’s advantage. In contrast, there is also a theory called psychological altruism which suggests that sometimes people can act out of the concern for the well being of other human beings without caring if it benefits them personally or not. For example, Jane sees a little girl standing in the …show more content…
Ethical egoism suggests that we should only act on behalf of our own self-interest, and that we should only concern ourselves with things that will benefit us directly or indirectly. This theory also suggests that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with our neighbors and their problems, but only our own. This theory differs from psychological egoism because it states that we should only care about ourselves instead of we can only care about ourselves. Being an ethical egoist has many flaws in my opinion and it is definitely a more shameful act in my eyes, and most likely in the eyes of many other people who consider themselves decent human beings. Being a proud follower of this theory is basically saying “screw everyone else because it doesn’t affect me.” which isn’t illegal, but it doesn’t exactly follow the basic human norms that many of us live by. Sure, we don’t have to help our 80 year old neighbor carry her groceries into the house, but we do it anyways because that seems like the right thing to