Ethical and Psychological Egoism, Essay Example

Egoism specifically is a concept of self-interest or the well-being of self. In philosophy egoism is concerned with where a person’s motivation is centered through their own goals and interests. There are two variants to the theory; descriptive (positive) and normative. Descriptive egoism is referred to as psychological egoism and ethical egoism is a normative variant. How individuals act and behave have a variety of causes and factors. People can act out for their own good or the good of others. Philosophers have differing opinions on the matter. Some theorists believe individuals have control over actions and how decisions are made which will affect others. Differing viewpoints argue that individuals’ act based on previous experiences and therefore, have limited choice in decision making. Psychological and ethical egoism is concerned with the philosophical and psychological issues in which a person deals with in making choices throughout their life.

Psychological egoism as an empirical theory commits the fallacy of hasty generalization or converse accident (Ethics, 2009). A fallacy of presumption, converse accident occurs when generalization or assumption is made based on insufficient evidence or carelessly gathering information. For example, a person is forced to deal with a rude cashier at a local store. In turn, the presumption is that all cashiers at that particular store are all rude. Simply a converse accident is taking one or more atypical events and making a generalization based on these events (Ethics, 2009).

Psychological egoism assuming that all people will act out of self-interest is false. Individuals have actions which are not always in their best interest, such as smoking cigarettes or using illegal drugs. Performing an action that a person wants to regardless of the consequences is not selfish. Psychological egoism in true form is selfish actions. People who help others are not always doing so in order to obtain a self-interest gain. Some individuals will act against self-interest to follow their conscience (Ethics, 2009).

Ethical egoism is concerned with how a person ‘ought’ to act or behave. There are two versions to this theory; strong and weak. The strong version of ethical egoism promotes the concept which details the moral obligation a person has to always support what is in their self-interest. Furthermore it is immoral not to promote behavior that is not in ones best interest. Moseley (2006) argues that there could never be an occasion when an agent ought not to pursue self-interest in favor of another morality.

The weak version of ethical egoism similar to the strong version supports the concept that it is a moral obligation to promote one’s best interest. However, the variation in the two is demonstrated by the weak version’s philosophy that it is not necessarily ever moral to promote self-interest. Therefore, there may be conditions in which the avoidance of personal interest may be a moral action (Moseley, 2006). Situations can arise in which it is more important to ignore self-interest in making moral conclusions.

Psychological and ethical egoism theories may appear to be similar; however, there are vast differences. The basic similarity they share is the fact that a person’s ego is involved, and an element of self-interest is involved in basic human actions. The most significant difference is that psychological egoism states that we always do what is in our own self-interest, while ethical egoism suggests that we should do what is in our best interest (Davison, 2006). Motivation is also a difference between the two. Psychological egoism has selfishness as the predominant motivation factor. Ethical egoism motivation stems from doing what is right and morally just.

Motivating factors for why people act the way they do depends on the amount of free will a person has and their own moral and ethical makeup. Psychological egoism motivation factors could include the notion of social duty resulting in respect and reputation. However, since the outcome of an action and the true motivation behind it is private to the individual person. Psychological egoism moves beyond the possibility of empirical verification and the possibility of empirical negation, since motives are private (Moseley, 2006).

Ethical egoism motivation factors for humans also include the same principles; however, the choice may not be a moral decision but rather a mistake in identifying self-interest. Such as being shipwrecked and swimming in a beautiful pool of water all day instead of spending the time searching and gathering food to be able to live. This person would eventually begin to see the distinctions between short and long-term interests (Moseley, 2006).

Selfishness and self-interest differ in distinctions between the two. Selfishness is a disregard for others and placing ones’ own interest first. Self-interest can also be seen as placing oneself ahead of others; however, it can also mean taking care of oneself while taking others into consideration.  It is human nature to look after oneself. The difference is selfishness only takes the individual into deliberation. Selfishness is short-term thinking while self-interest looks at the whole scenario and not just the promise of a quick reward.

The theories of psychological and ethical egoism may seem similar to one another; however, the concepts are quite different.  The reasons for human behavior and actions inherently will always be a mystery. People act for many reasons and the philosophical theories of egoism and human motivation are difficult to ascertain on a definitive level due to a person’s private thoughts and motivations.

References

Ethics. (2009). Retrieved from http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/egoism.html

Davison, Brandi. (2006). Ethical and Psychological Egoism. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/93503/ethical_and_psychological_egoism.html?cat=4

Moseley, Alexander. (2006). Egoism: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/egoism.htm