RE: An Argument For Ethical Egoism
June 16, 2019 at 1:58 pm
(This post was last modified: June 16, 2019 at 2:08 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
I suppose it would depend on whether we were going for a descriptive theory, and also our own peculiar views on the character of humanity. Human beings are a remarkably social species. We can contextualize that as a contract for utilitarian benefit or as the weight of eons of adaptation and learned behaviors. Or, we can leave room for this being the impetus of what are otherwise selfless acts. I think that it's at least possible for a human being to engage in a selfless act (though, human social structures being what they are, we tend to think that such acts deserve reward, lol - we just love to muddy the water). I don't believe that all human acts can be reduced to some concern over maximizing self interest.
If, however, we reduce all of human compulsion and ability down to seeking to maximize self interest, we don't need an argument linking (and limiting) obligation to ability, or for moral realism to be true, to reach our conclusion. Since that assertion -is- our conclusion. If psychological egoism is true, then that's just what we do, whether we could do otherwise or not, and regardless of whether our moral propositions are objectively true in any sense (even in the sense of whether or not x actually maximizes our own self interest).
We also have our intuition to contend with, in that we commonly believe that doing the right thing when that thing is plainly against one's own self interest is one of (if not the) most strenuous tests of moral character. It's an open question as to why we would think that if it's not something that we've ever observed to occur.
If, however, we reduce all of human compulsion and ability down to seeking to maximize self interest, we don't need an argument linking (and limiting) obligation to ability, or for moral realism to be true, to reach our conclusion. Since that assertion -is- our conclusion. If psychological egoism is true, then that's just what we do, whether we could do otherwise or not, and regardless of whether our moral propositions are objectively true in any sense (even in the sense of whether or not x actually maximizes our own self interest).
We also have our intuition to contend with, in that we commonly believe that doing the right thing when that thing is plainly against one's own self interest is one of (if not the) most strenuous tests of moral character. It's an open question as to why we would think that if it's not something that we've ever observed to occur.
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