...Rowe Psychological Egoism In this paper I will argue against psychological egoism. More specifically, I will argue against hedonistic psychological egoism, a popular form of psychological egoism. Hedonistic psychological egoism is the view that the ultimate motive for human action is the desire to experience pleasure or avoid pain. I will begin by contrasting psychological egoism with ethical egoism. I will then discuss arguments that support psychological egoism, and refute those arguments using Rachels’ and Feinberg’s view’s against the theory. I will conclude by arguing that psychological egoism is implausible as it is incapable of being falsified, and fails to distinguish critical terms proposed in the theory. I will begin by defining psychological egoism. Psychological egoism is the view that people always act according to their self-interest. According to this view, our only intrinsic desires are desires for the advancement of our own self-interest. But we can still have instrumental desires for other things. Instrumental desires are desires that you have only because you believe that satisfying that desire will help you satisfy some other desire. For example, I may desire to write this paper only because I believe that by writing this paper I will get a good grade, and I desire to get a good grade; I don’t intrinsically desire to write this paper. Now that I have defined psychological egoism, I will contrast the theory with ethical egoism. Psychological egoism and...
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...1. Psychological Egoism All forms of egoism require explication of “self-interest” (or “welfare” or “well-being”). There are two main theories. Preference or desire accounts identify self-interest with the satisfaction of one's desires. Often, and most plausibly, these desires are restricted to self-regarding desires. What makes a desire self-regarding is controversial, but there are clear cases and counter-cases: a desire for my own pleasure is self-regarding; a desire for the welfare of others is not. Objective accounts identify self-interest with the possession of states (such as virtue or knowledge) that are valued independently of whether they are desired. Hedonism, which identifies self-interest with pleasure, is either a preference or an objective account, according to whether what counts as pleasure is determined by one's desires. Psychological egoism claims that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare. This allows for action that fails to maximize perceived self-interest, but rules out the sort of behavior psychological egoists like to target — such as altruistic behavior or motivation by thoughts of duty alone. It allows for weakness of will, since in weakness of will cases I am still aiming at my own welfare; I am weak in that I do not act as I aim. And it allows for aiming at things other than one's welfare, such as helping others, where these things are a means to one's welfare. Psychological egoism is supported by our frequent observation of...
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...Egoism By Jenny Taylor Philosophy P120 October 30, 2011 Egoism is “The moral view that everyone ought always to do those acts that will best serve his or her own best self-interest.” (Pojman & Fieser page87) It is contrasted with altruism, “an unselfish regard of concern for others”. This essay will explain the relation between psychological egoism and ethical egoism. It will examine how someone who believes in psychological egoism explains the apparent instances of altruism. It will also discuss some arguments in favor of universal ethical egoism, and exam Pojman's critique of arguments for and against universal ethical egoism. Psychological egoism, a descriptive claim about human nature, states that humans by nature are motivated only by self-interest. To act in one's self-interest is to act mainly for one's own good and loving what is one's own (i.e. ego, body, family, house, belongings in general). It means to give one's own interests higher priority than others'. "It (psychological egoism) claims that we cannot do other than act from self-interest motivation, so that altruism-the theory that we can and should sometimes act in favor of others' interests-is simply invalid because it's impossible" (Pojman 85). According to psychological egoists, any act no matter how altruistic it might seem, is actually motivated by some selfish desire of the agent (i.e., desire for reward, avoidance of guilt, personal happiness). For someone who believes...
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...Psychological egoism is the view that everyone always acts selfishly. It describes human nature as being wholly self-centered and self-motivated. Psychological egoism is different from ethical egoism in their “direction of fit” to the world. Psychological ego-ism is a factual theory. It aims to fit the world. In the world is not how psychological ego-ism says it is because someone acts unselfishly, then something is wrong with psycho-logical egoism. In my opinion this argument is completely wrong and unsound. According to James Rachel, an author of “Elements of Moral Philosophy,” there two main arguments exist against psychological egoism. The first argument can be formulated as such: 1) Everyone always does what they most want to do. 2) If everyone always does what they most want to do, they act selfishly 3) Everyone always acts selfishly. Opponents claim that psychological egoism renders ethics useless. There two cri-ticisms of this argument. First criticism is on premise one: “It is not the case that everyone always does what they most want to do because sometimes people do what they are obligated to do. They are either forced to do it because someone makes them or they do it because they seek the end result of it, such as a visit to the dentist entails.” (J. Rachels p. 70) In his book “Elements of Moral Philosophy” Rachel gives great examples to support this criti-cism: “the soldier who falls on the grenade to save his buddies, the person who runs into the busy...
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...Ethical Egoism, and Moral Relativism Tom Gardner Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to answer the questions; what’s right? What’s wrong? And why? Moral relativism is an ethics position that essentially states that people have disagreeing moral beliefs and therefore you must but tolerant of other's morals. This position leads to the problematic realization that if this is the case there can be no objective moral truths nor can there be any universal principles. Act utilitarianism and ethical egoism are two different ethics theories that attempt to respond to this challenge of moral relativism in different ways. Ethical egoism attempts to respond to the challenge of moral relativism by justifying that there is a universal principle for what actions are right and what are wrong. It is a form of consequentialism, which means it looks solely at the consequences of action to see if it is right or wrong. The defining sentence of egoism is as follows, “What's good for you is right and what's bad for you is wrong.” This phrase can be interpreted in a number of ways, the most popular one being: every person should act in their own self-interest. This means that when deciding on whether an action is good, any effect on others (mental or physical) by said action has no merit. An egoist that is measuring or justifying an action's goodness is only examining the possible positive or negative effects this action will have on him. The majority of the justification arguments for ethical...
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...Faith Holloway Dr Justin Sytsma PHIL 105 May 5 2014 Critical Analysis of Psychological Egoism Psychological egoism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2010), entails that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare. This essay will explore the meaning of psychological egoism, how arguments can be justifiably presented and why this theory is commonly appealing to philosophers. Often supporters of psychological egoism will present arguments through theories such as Darwinism and Desire Satisfaction. This essay essentially aims to critically assess the substantiality of these arguments. In order to correctly assess the arguments in favour of psychological egoism, firstly it must be stated what is implied by these arguments. Psychological egoism has many differences to other egoist theories such as ethical egoism, which state we should be selfish. Psychological egoism however states that all human actions are uncontrollably selfish, and that this is part of our human nature. It should be noted before continuing that this essay will be assessing this more radical form of psychological egoism , which identifies that ‘selfishness is’ the only way one can possibly performs actions, disregarding any consideration of others unless this aids their selfish action in some way. Psychological egoism can seem plausible to its supporters for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common include the concept that desires are entirely our own and therefore pursuing...
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...Egoism SG I. Definitions: Psychological Egoism – the view that all human actions are at their cores pursuit of the self-interest of the agent Ethical Egoism – the ethical position that we should all pursue our own (enlightened) self-interest Altruism (ethical) – people ought to pursue the interests of others Which of these are descriptive and which prescriptive? II. Rachels Egoism challenges two of our basic assumption about morality. 1. that people are obligated to consider the interests of others 2. that people can actually be motivated by a concern for others Psychological egoism challenges the second of these assumptions; ethical egoism the first. The myth of the Ring of Gyges raises both of these challenges. What is the myth? Glaucon's points: 1. The virtuous man would do the same thing as the one without virtue (psychological egoism) 2. And why shouldn't he? What would be his reward, if it is not avoidance of punishment? (ethical egoism) Rachels refutes psychological egoism It is simply a fact that people often act unselfishly. But the psychological egoist will make two sorts of replies to this fact. Arg 1: even when acting unselfishly, the agent is doing what she wants to do. Rachels raises problems for this argument: first, this seems false (why?) second, even if everyone always does what they want to do, what they want to do is not always what is in their own interest Arg 2: the agent derives satisfaction from acting for others, and...
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...| Paper 1 | | | | Paper 1 | | | Phil 140 April 6, 2012 Authored by: Willie Moore Phil 140 April 6, 2012 Authored by: Willie Moore Cultural Relativism challenges our belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. Cultural Relativism also holds that that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the bounds of the culture itself. Cultural Relativists believe that there is no such thing as universal truth in ethics; there are only the various cultural codes, and nothing more. There are five claims that are made by cultural relativists: 1. Different societies have different moral codes. 2. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the moral code of a society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right, at least within that society. 3. There is no objective standard that can be used to judge no moral truths that hold for all people at all times. 4. The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is but one among many. 5. It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should always be tolerant of them. There are three problems Rachel has with Cultural Relativism: 1. We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our own. 2. We could no longer criticize the code of our own society. 3. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt. Ethical Subjectivism is the idea that our moral opinions are based on our feelings and nothing...
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...Bigelow Final Project The Syrian Conflict Evaluate the ethics of any legal or ethical issue in the news. Analyze the dilemma or issue. Thoroughly evaluate the appropriateness of applying at least two ethical frameworks reviewed in the course, and suggest an approach that might help to avoiding such dilemmas/issues in the future. What started off as an uprising and eventually led to a civil war, has destroyed much of Syria and resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. And no matter what angle you look at it from, the existing regime under the command of Bashar Al Assad and his so-called "war against terrorists" has broken all barriers of ethics, morals and rules of war. Many sources have claimed foreign interference to have ignited the situation, but at the same time, the regime has spared no efforts to suppress the voice of those who stood up against the oppressive rule. But the dilemma does not end with how the situation was dealt with by the existing rulers. Nations all around the world are waiting on how the United States of America responds to the happening and whether the US can justify its reason for intervention, which it believes to be its moral duty under the principle of its 'Just War Theory'. Utilitarianism One of the ethical frameworks that would apply to the Syrian situation would be the act and rule of Utilitarianism that dictates that the actions of a party be justified so as long as it has better consequences that other available actions...
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...Ethics The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into three general subject areas: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and what they mean. Are they merely social inventions? Do they involve more than expressions of our individual emotions? Metaethical answers to these questions focus on the issues of universal truths, the will of God, the role of reason in ethical judgments, and the meaning of ethical terms themselves. Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. This may involve articulating the good habits that we should acquire, the duties that we should follow, or the consequences of our behavior on others. Finally, applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues, such as abortion, infanticide, animal rights, environmental concerns, homosexuality, capital punishment, or nuclear war. By using the conceptual tools of metaethics and normative ethics, discussions in applied ethics try to resolve these controversial issues. The lines of distinction between metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics are often blurry. For example, the issue of abortion is an applied ethical topic since it involves a specific type of controversial behavior. But it also depends...
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...PHI-279 February 20th 2014 Mark Herr Psychological egoism is a theory based on the idea that an individuals does things not because he thinks of himself as a good Samaritan, but unbeknown to him it is done for selfish reason. I experienced such a theory during my teenage years, and I will testify on the event. I was walking to father's house late at night in my local neighborhood of which I grew up in. Randomly an act of violence was happening in yards away, I hear several popping sounds followed by screamimng and running. It takes seconds to realize those sounds are bullets being fired at someone, and this random individual is running away from this gun man. I unconsciously spring into hero mode to aide the victim aide (with no regard to my personal safety) to make sure she is not fatally wounded. After the superman effect has worn off I thought to myself “ you did good today with this selfless act”, but my psychological egoistitc thinking was waiting for the 6 o clock news reporter to give details of my heroic deed, as well as my hero banner and community parade. Unfortunately none came, instead I was detained by the police because they thought I was the perpetrator 1. Argumentative Essay Using one of the ethical theories, reviewed in class, as taken from the Sterba book, write a reflection paper of no less than five (5) pages, but no more than ten (10) pages typed and double spaced (12 size, Times New Roman font) which addresses the following main points of essays...
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...children learn this rule, they are told to never forget it and to use it for the rest of their life: through school, for families, for work. There becomes a gray area, though, when The Golden Rule is brought into the workplace. For some reason, offices and workers feel that this rule doesn’t apply to them. They don’t need to be honest because, in some way, they are benefitting themselves. Business is where The Golden Rule gets tossed and people and firms start to act out of egoism, a form of moral belief. To uncover the “how, where and why” of business ethics, one must explore deeper beyond the surface. First, to understand how big businesses violate ethics, one must know what business ethics are and what they consist of. Second, to understand how businesses and workers act of out egoism, one must know what egoism is and what the beliefs pertain to. Then, connections and examples of businesses violating their ethics and how this unites it with egoism must be found to give a solid foundation for the argument. Finally, after all the connections and ties have been uncovered, one must figure out why businesses are doing such deeds. Of course it is easy to find the definition of ethics; look it up in the dictionary. To define business ethics is a little trickier; they are not grouped together in the dictionary. The Merriam Webster...
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...Analysis of Personal and Organizational Ethics and Values between For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations Fedno Trompe PHI 445 Personal & Organizational Ethics Prof. Elaine Phompheng May 04, 2015 Part I The non- profit organization that I chose for this assignment is the American Cancer Society. About 4 years ago I lose my mother with lymphoma; her death left pain and gaping hole at the core of my life puzzle. For that I would like share with others about the several nonprofit companies whose goals are to help others. The American Cancer Society (ACS) saves lives by helping others stay well and get well. Their main focus is to prevent cancer or detect it as its earliest, most treatable stage. American Cancer Society: History: The American Cancer Society was first organized in 1913. At that time 15 doctors and businessman in New York City got together to create what was then called the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC). In that time in history it was not considered appropriate to mention the word “Cancer” in public. Information concerning this bad illness was hidden in climate of fear and denial. At the same time, over75, 000 people died each year of cancer in just in the United States. The most important item on the founders’ agenda was to raise awareness of this illness, before any other educate doctors, nurses, patients and family members about cancer. Marjorie Illig was an ASCC field representative...
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...When a woman is sexually assaulted is it wrong for her to consider an abortion if she determines that she has been impregnated by the assaulter. It depends on how you feel about abortion. From the opinions of many the woman should go through with the full term pregnancy because the long term effects of having an abortion outweigh the love that can be given to the child in its lifespan.,In a study conducted by, Dr. Sandra Mahkorn found that 75 to 85 percent of women who were sexually assaulted did not have abortions. The welfare of a mother and her child are never at odds, even in sexual assault cases. As the stories of many women confirm, both the mother and the child are helped by preserving life, not by perpetuating violence. But what happens in the case of the woman who wants an abortion because she simply does not want her assaulter’s child. The reason women want abortions in these cases is because it will help them to put the assault behind them, recover more quickly, and avoid the additional trauma of giving birth to a “rapist’s child.” Is it right or is it wrong? Though my opinion can be viewed as a pro-choice view, I think that the woman has the right to choose. I feel that the decision should be made by the individual woman and not the opinion of someone’s cause. She should be able to freely make the decision without any repercussions to the decision she has made. The woman not only has to deal with the fact that she has been sexually assaulted but even tougher she...
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...Institution of affiliation: The Media and Its Responsibilities Introduction Ethics is defined as the study of standards of conduct, moral philosophy or moral judgment. It deals with moral values of human behavior as well as the principles and rules that are applied to govern the behavior. Philosophers, worldwide, have developed various theories meant to explain further the concept of philosophy (Thompson, 1985). These theories include: Utilitarianism, deontology and virtue. They have also come up with other theories that explain the behavior of individuals such as emotivism, relativism, and ethical egoism. In this paper, I will put consideration on one of the above theories in relation to the media and its responsibilities; furthermore I will contrast my response of how to resolve ethical issues with perspective brought by ethical egoism with credible and well argued support of view that is closer to mine. Media is a diversified form of communication intended to reach a large number of the audience through the application of media technologies. There are various technologies available through which the communication is made possible, they include: radio in broadcast media; television and films which transmit information electronically; recorded music; use of newspapers, pamphlets, books and comics to convey information in print media (Thompson, 1985). Other type of media communication include the outdoor where physical objects such as billboards...
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