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Be My Valentine?
Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of selfsacrifice. Love based on self-interest, we are admonished, is cheap and sordid. True love, we are told, is altruistic. But is it? Genuine love is the exact opposite. It is the most selfish experience possible, in the true sense of the term: it benefits your life in a way that involves no sacrifice of others to yourself nor of yourself to others.
--Gary Hull
Valentines Day, 1998 Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey
2/21/2013 (c) Lawrence M. Hinman 2
Ethical Egoism
May appeal to psychological egoism as a foundation Often very compelling for high school students
2/21/2013
2/21/2013
Altruism Is Demeaning
Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers argued that altruism was demeaning because it meant that an individual was saying that some other person was more important than that individual. Nietzsche saw this as denigrating oneself, putting oneself down by valuing oneself less than the other. This, the heart of altruism, is demeaning in Nietzsches eyes.
2/21/2013 (c) Lawrence M. Hinman 6
Reply: this justification ultimately appeals to utilitarian principles, not the principles of ethical egoism.
2/21/2013 (c) Lawrence M. Hinman 7
This argument presupposes the people in fact already act selfishly (i.e, psychological egoism) and are just pretending to be altruistic. If psychological egoism is true, then we should admit its truth and get rid of our hypocrisy. Reply: it may not make a big difference in a world of independent adults, but in a world with children and people at risk or in need, they would be put in further jeopardy.
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman 8
2/21/2013
Presupposes a world of strangers indifferent to one another. Difficult to imagine love or even friendship from the altruists standpoint. Seems to be morally insensitive
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman 9
2/21/2013
Can the ethical egoist consistently will that everyone else follow the tenets of ethical egoism?
It seems to be in ones self-interest to be selfish oneself and yet get everyone else to act altruistically (especially if they act for your benefit). This leads to individual ethical egoism.
Some philosophers such as Jesse Kalin have argued that in sports we consistently universalize ethical egoism: we intend to win, but we want our opponents to try as hard as they can!
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman 10
2/21/2013
Some philosophers have argued that ethical egoism is, at best, appropriate to living in a world of strangers that you do not care about.
2/21/2013
11
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12
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13
Sometimes self-interest masquerades as altruism Ethics should not deny the importance of self-interest Self-love is a virtue, but it is not the only virtue Ethical egoism mistakes a part of the picture for the whole picture
(c) Lawrence M. Hinman 14
2/21/2013
Aristotle
Ideally, we seek a society in which self-interest and regard for others convergethe green zone. Egoism at the expense of others and altruism at the expense of self-interest both create worlds in which goodness and self-regard are mutually exclusivethe yellow zone. No one want the red zone, which is against both selfinterest and regard for others.
Kant
Tocquevilles Self-interest rightly understood High Altruism Self-interest and regard for others converge Self-interest at the expense of others
High Egoism
Low Altruism
2/21/2013