1 Ethics Chapter Eight Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?

1

Ethics

Chapter EightEthics and Egoism:Why Should We Be Moral?

2

Ethics and Egoism

• Why Should We Be Moral?– Why should I do what morality

requires even when it may not be in my best interest?

– Suppose I can cheat and get away with it?

– Why shouldn’t I cheat?•I won’t like it if others did it•If enough people do it,

grades will be meaningless

3

Ethics and Egoism

• The Ring of Gyges– Morality is simply a compromise

between our longing to dominate and our fear of being dominated by others

– We enter into a social con tract to live by mutually coercive rules

– We call this “Morality”

4

Ethics and Egoism

• The Ring of Gyges– Gyges had a ring that made him

invisible and used the ring to seduce the Queen and plot against the King, slew him and took his kingdom

– No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market

5

Ethics and Egoism

• The Ring of Gyges– A man is just not willingly or

because he thinks justice is good to him individually, but of necessity

– For whenever anyone thinks that he can safely be unjust, he is unjust

– All men believe that injustice is far more profitable than justice

6

Ethics and Egoism

• The Ring of Gyges– What we need to do to make this

determination is to look at individuals who have reached the extremes of just and unjust and then determine who is the happier of the two

7

Ethics and Egoism

• The Ring of Gyges– Everyone is better off being ruled by

the godlike and intelligent whether by having it inside himself or by laws or friends

– That way we may all be alike as possible and all steered by the same thing

8

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Objectivism is the philosophy that

the proper life for rational beings is the pursuit of their happiness and that altruism and self sacrifice are incompatible with rational morality

9

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Rand says that morality is a code of

behavior imposed on you by whim– Your pleasure, you have been

taught, is to be found in immorality, your interest best served by evil

– Any moral code must be designed against you, to drain your life

10

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– The good is self sacrifice for the

sake of ghosts in heaven and the good is self sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth

– Man’s mind is his basic tool of survival

– To remain alive, he must think– To think is an act of choice

11

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Reason does not work automatically– The connections of logic are not

made by instinct, unlike the functions of your stomach, lungs, heart

– An instinct of self preservation is precisely what man does not possess

– An instinct is an unerring and automatic form of knowledge

12

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Man’s life is the standard of morality– If existence on earth is your goal,

you must choose your actions and values by the standards of that which is proper to man for the purpose of preserving , fulfilling and enjoying the irreplaceable value which is your life

13

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– A being who does not hold his own

life as the motive and goal of his actions, is acting on the motive and standard of death

– The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live

14

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Rand says the moral code many live

by provides a consolation prize and booby trap

– For your own happiness, you must serve the happiness of others, the only way to achieve joy is to give it up to others

15

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– If you find no joy in this, it is your

own fault and the proof of your evil– Why is it moral to serve the

happiness of others, but not your own?

– If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but immoral when experienced by you

16

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– When need is the standard, every

man is both victim and parasite– He must labor to fill the needs of

others, leaving himself in the position of a parasite whose needs must be filled by others

17

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– There is no mouthful of food you

swallow that is not needed by someone, somewhere on earth

– Guilt is all that you retain within your soul

– No wonder why this morality has not achieved brother- hood on earth or the good will of man to man

18

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Do you owe your love to those who

don’t deserve it?– And unless they deserve it, the more

love you owe them?

19

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Since childhood, you have been

hiding the guilty secret that you feel no desire to be moral, that you dread and hat your code, but dare not say it eve to yourself, that you are devoid of those moral instincts, which others profess to feel

20

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– The less you felt, the louder you

proclaimed your selfless love an servitude to others , in dread of ever letting them discover your own self, the self that you betrayed, the self that you kept in concealment, like a skeleton in the closet of your body

21

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– Existence among you is a giant

pretense, and act you all perform for one another, each feeling that he is the only guilty freak, each placing his moral authority in the unknowable known only to others, each faking the reality he feels they expect him to fake

22

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– None having the courage to break

the vicious circle– So, discard the protective rages of

that vice that you call virtue, learn to value yourself, fight for your happiness and learn to live like a man

23

Ethics and Egoism

• In Defense of Ethical Egoism/Rand– To demand is to claim that your life

is his property– This is a loathsome claim– But something that is still more

loathsome is your agreement to it

24

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– Universal Ethical Egoism is the

theory that everyone ought always to serve his or her own interest

– Everyone ought to do what will maximize one’s own expected utility or bring about one’s own greatest happiness, even if it requires harming others

25

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– Ayn Rand believes that selfishness is

a virtue and altruism is a vice– Ethical Egoism prescribes that we

seek our own happiness exclusively

26

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– But even a predominant egoist

would admit that sometimes the best way to reach self fulfillment is for us to forget about ourselves and strive to live for goals, causes or other persons

27

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– Even the Second Commandment

states, not that your must always sacrifice yourself for the other person, but that your ought to love your neighbor as yourself

– Self interest and self love are morally good things, but not at the expense of other people’s legitimate interests

28

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– The heart of ethical egoism is that

our highest moral duty is always to promote our individual interests

29

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– Criticisms of Ethical Egoism

•Inconsistent–Moral principles must be

universal –An egoist must always

come out on top–But I must also realize

others need to be on top

30

Ethics and Egoism


•Inconsistent–This is an incompatible outcome–According to Egoism

there is no method to solve this inconsistency

–So, there is no moral principle

31

Ethics and Egoism


•Publicity Argument–Unless Egoism is publicized,

they can not serve as guides to action or aids to resolve conflicts

– It is not in the Egoists self interest to publicize their interests (self defeating)

32

Ethics and Egoism


•Paradox of Egoism– In order to reach the goal of

egoism one must give up egoism and become an altruist, the very antithesis of egoism

–Friendship

33

Ethics and Egoism


•Counterintuitive Consequence–Whenever I do not have good

evidence that my helping you will end up to my advantage, I must refrain from helping you

34

Ethics and Egoism


•Counterintuitive Consequence– If I can save the whole world

from destruction by pressing a button, but there is no gain in it for me, it is wrong for me to press that button

35

Ethics and Egoism

• Egoism and Altruism/Pojman– Evolution and Altruism

•Morality can be seen as an evolutionary strategy for gene replication

•Birds are afflicted with life endangering parasites

•They depend on mutual grooming

36

Ethics and Egoism


•Two types of birds have developed–Those who are disposed to

groom anyone (Suckers)–Those who refuse to

groom anyone (Cheaters)•Suckers will do fairly well,

but Cheaters will not survive

37

Ethics and Egoism


•In the Sucker population a mutant Cheater will survive and will prosper

•As the Suckers are exploited they will eventually die out

•But when there are too few Sucker to groom the Cheaters the Cheaters will die off and become extinct

38

Ethics and Egoism


•There is a third type of bird called the Grudger who groom all, but only those who reciprocate in grooming them

•They groom each other and Suckers, but not Cheaters

•They don’t waste time with unappreciative Cheaters

39

Ethics and Egoism


•They are not exploited and have ample energy to gather food and build better nests for their loved ones

•The real name for Suckers is Christians, who believe in complete altruism

40

Ethics and Egoism


•Cheaters are ruthless egoists•Grudgers are reciprocal altruists

(you scratch my back…)•Suckers advocate turning

the other cheek and repaying evil with good

41

Ethics and Egoism


•We have duties to cooperate and reciprocate, but no duty to serve those who manipulate us nor an obvious duty to sacrifice ourselves for people outside our domain of special responsibility

42

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– 150,000 children die every day from

malnutrition– We spend money on ourselves for

the necessities of life, but for luxuries also

– Could we forgo these luxuries and give money to famine relief instead?

43

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– Most of us would probably be a little

bit embarrassed and would say we should do more for famine relief

– But the truth is we hardly ever think of this situation•What is our duty? •What should we do?

44

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– Most of the time we look out for our

own interests– But at the same time we understand

that the needs of others are important

– When we can help others (and there is little cost to ourselves) we should do so

45

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– We have natural duties to others– If there is a certain action that would

benefit other people, then that is a reason why we should do that action

46

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– Others have maintained that we

have no natural duty to others– Ethical Egoism is the idea

that each person ought to pursue his own self interest exclusively

– We have no moral duty except to do what is best for ourselves

47

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– Ethical Egoism is the radical view

that one’s only duty is to promote one’s own interests

– The theory insists only that in such cases the benefit to others is not what makes the act right

– What is right is that it is to one’s advantage

48

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– In Favor of Ethical Egoism

•Each of us is intimately familiar with our own individual wants & needs

•Each of us is uniquely placed to pursue those wants & needs effectively

•We are not well suited to satisfy the needs of others

49

Ethics and Egoism


•If we set out to be our brothers keeper we are sure to fail

•The policy of looking out for others is an intrusion into other people’s privacy

•Making other people the object of one’s charity is degrading to them

50

Ethics and Egoism


•But when we feed hungry children are we really “butting in” or “deprive people of their self respect”?

•Are starving people harmed when we intrude into their business

51

Ethics and Egoism

• Critique of Ethical Egoism/Rachels– Arguments Against Ethical Egoism

•Ethical Egoism advocates that each of us divide the world into two categories of people

–Ourselves (these interests are important)

–All the rest (these interests are not important)

52

Ethics and Egoism


•Why am I more important?–More intelligent?– I enjoy life more?–My accomplishments

are greater?•Ethical Egoism is an

arbitrary doctrine like racism

53

Ethics and Egoism


•We should care about the interests of other people for the very same reason we care about our own interests; their needs and desires are comparable to our own

•If our needs should be met, so should theirs

Documents

1 Ethics Chapter Eight Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?