Disagreeing with Ethical Egoism

In philosophy, ethical egoism is the right policy that everybody should act to endorse his or her personal goals and welfare. Ethical egoism is different from psychological egoism since ethical egoism teaches how individuals should act rather than how they behave while psychological means overvaluation of one’s importance, or of one’s activities. Therefore, the quest for one’s self-regard should at all times be individuals’ main objective. Egoism has two deviations, descriptive or normative (Matterhorn 39). The descriptive or positive variation perceives egoism as a realistic picture of people’s concerns. That is, the quest for people to fulfill and interests motivate them. The normative method suggests that society should be self-driven irrespective of what is driving their deeds. A person prefers to attend to their needs before thinking of others since nobody must uphold any person’s happiness.

Ethical egoism is regularly associated with a lack of interest in other people’s well-being to favor personal welfare. However, egotism should not be likened with self-centeredness because it is habitually a person’s concern to help others or to desist from hurting them. For example, a philosopher known as Rand uses a situation of a man who used all of his wealth to provide for his wife’s hospital bills and he also states that such noble deeds do not occur to outsiders. He further says that such situations do not often happen especially to an egoist there has to be a motivation or a connection for them to help a person. Therefore, the kind of actions we accomplish for the sake of other people such as family and friends are undeserving to everybody. Nevertheless, Rand also defines such deed as a prize which men have to get through their qualities and which one cannot provide to ordinary colleagues. Therefore, unfamiliar persons are not deserving of such deeds, and by any chance, we should avoid doing damage to people, but our responsibilities to help them are also insignificant.

Though moral egotism has some demands because of its ability to resolve moral codes and selfishness, the concept has nearly been wholly overruled as a suitable ethical model. One of the utmost simple reproaches is that ethical egoists normally falsify humanity; the policy competes against ethical egoism and the origin of ethics on a concern for others’ interests. Rand, a philosopher, claims that, if a person embraces selflessness then the individual should also embrace low self-confidence, a discern insolent concerning others as a dreadful outlook (David). Rand and Stirner fail to reflect on the need for helping others; they identify philanthropy as the only weakness to personal objectives (Stuart). I disagree with their view on how they state that ethics involve everyone, and the universal well-being of others, even if it is not the best motivation of principles, is a crucial factor of any broad ethical model.

I disagree with the concept, especially because some philosophers such as Rand’s happen to count on a tricky problem or dilemma. Altruism is regarded as the only substitute outlook to moral egoism, and once it is let go, egoism is validated. The egoism theory is unsatisfactory since it overlooks arguments and contradictions of a range of other just models. There are many difficulties associated with this theory and can only be solved in case more arguments are employed to support it since in my view the approach only recommend and overlook the puplic interests, which results to a captivating speculative problem. The question is, how can ethical egoism be reflected as ethically necessary if its supporters do not want it to be universally functional?

Moreover, the theory does not offer means of solving conflicts of concern. Ethical egoism recommends both parties to pursue their individual goals. It does not propose any form of conflict resolution. For example, if ethical egoism were more broadly used to come into decision involving two parties, preferably a person’s happiness would clash with another person’s goals and welfare. Therefore, in such a situation, it will be difficult to reach a decision so as not to look like you are favoring one party and discriminating the other. Thus, it would be difficult for both to pursue their welfare at the same time. For example, if persons A and B are to be chosen to participate in a football game A would prefer that they may be selected than from B and vice versa while it would be right picking both of them to participate in the game.

Also, James Rachels objects the ethical egoism theory. Rachels likens ethical egoism with discrimination or racism concerning its theoretical structure. People who are racists or those who discriminate separate people into groups and behave towards them in a different way grounded on the characteristics without validation that their race is any upright than the others, thus interpreting racism as an uninformed policy. Also, moral egoists emphasize how people discriminate others by dividing them in groups of people; themselves and the rest. Egoists disregard the welfares of the first group and regard the interests of those in the second set as more significant (Rachels, and Stuart). The individualist cannot provide valid reasons for the differences among both sets of the groups. Therefore, Rachels regarded ethical egoism as an illogical theory and other people from the different race should be presented with equal moral concerns same as us since their values and needs are similar to our own.

To summarize, ethical egotism is broadly rejected theory with few modern supporters. The review of the original principle of the ethical egoism will lead to the development of a just moral theory. Therefore, lack of psychological egoism can lead to people’s failure to accomplish their goals if their desire to do so does not come from within their heart and self-interest. Moral egoism states that it is right for people to do something without being motivated by any goals or interest. Just like ethical egoist claims that each person has a moral duty to follow his or her self-interest, I am the one who best discerns what I need, so egoism comes before the interests of others.

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