Ethical Egoism: Are We Always Selfish?

2b. To be selfish is to do anything to benefit themselves in any way. To be greedy is to do anything in order to accumulate more wealth.

Selfishness is being concerned for oneself or one’s advantage and welfare regardless of others. Selfness is demonstrated when a person leaves and does not tell anyone where they are going. In Into the Wild Jon Krakauer tells the story of Chris McCandless’s selfish quest for “ultimate Freedom”. Chris is selfish because he takes his privileged life for granted. Then, Chris decides to leave and he totally ignores and blocks out his family. Finally Chris builds relationships with people, then leaves when they are no longer needed. Chris taking his life for granted, his ignorance and the fact that he is an absentee is why Chris McCandless’s quest for “ultimate freedom” is selfish.

Egoist; A self-centered or selfish person. This term is mistaken for being narcissistic and wrong. Self-motivation and individuality should never be seen as a bad thing. There is a difference between bragging and being an egoist. Bragging is rubbing one's pride in another's face and Egoism is being proud of oneself. Egoism is seen as self obsession in today’s society, when the reality is it promotes difference and self-motivation.

     Also, when a situation arises in which one must make a split decision, does the psychological egoist expect a human to deliberate whether the action is in their self-interest or not? For example, if I see my child run out onto a busy street and I can see that if I run out and grab her I can save her life and if I do not, my child will be squished by a speeding car. Do I, as the egoist would expect, take the time to deliberate that saving my child will result in all kinds of good for both her and I? No, I rush out and grab her in an instant and the good comes later. Now of course it is true that we sometimes get satisfaction and/or good feelings from acting unselfishly, but it would be a post hoc fallacy to say that we perform unselfish acts solely for the sake of that satisfaction. Also, self-interest and an interest for the welfare of others can certainly be bedfellows, and not strange ones. Using the shopkeeper example, he could opt never cheat his customers simply because he knows that honesty is good for business. He could cheat his customers and make a boatload of money, but he knows that it is wrong to cheat and lie to people – it hurts them, is unfair and may make him feel guilty. So, self-interest or selfishness is not

In a way being selfish is what got humans where they are today.The evolution of humans required competition,and aggressive selfishness. We were forced to be selfish and watch our own back, to always put ourselves first in bad situations. This reaction to put ourselves first is natural, it’s in our blood. However, is the very thing that made us so successful as a species the one thing that so easily tears us apart? As humans we have an incredible capacity to dehumanize others to protect our own self interest.

Selfishness is defined as the stinginess resulting from a concern of your own welfare and the disregard of others. Selfishness, once passing a certain level, is seen as a character flaw by many people. Where does selfishness come from? Is it a trait in which as humans we pick up over time, or is it an animalistic trait in which we are born with and have no control over? Author Mark Sundeen tells us the story of Daniel Suelo, in the book The Man Who Quit Money. Daniel Suelo was a mid-aged man, who decided to drop everything and live on his own without the use of money; he would no longer live the typical American lifestyle and survive strictly on the kindness of others and the leftovers he could find in dumpsters.

Psychological egoism is the view that everyone always acts selfishly. It describes human nature as being wholly self-centered and self-motivated. Psychological egoism is different from ethical egoism in their “direction of fit” to the world. Psychological ego-ism is a factual theory. It aims to fit the world. In the world is not how psychological ego-ism says it is because someone acts unselfishly, then something is wrong with psycho-logical egoism. In my opinion this argument is completely wrong and unsound.

Ethical Egoism, Ethical Altruism, and Eudaimonia are terms adversely mentioned, and used interchangeably, especially in the philosophical field. From a philosophical angle, egoism can take the descriptive or the normative perspective. While taking the ethical egoism angle, the source highlights that for a particular action, it must adhere to the moral requirements to the extent that there is no depriving of the individual’s self-interests. With regards to ethical altruism, there is the tendency to be inclined to a behavior that has high intentions of ensuring that there is the garnering of benefits to the other person for the purpose of this other person’s welfare (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy n.p.). The chapter 5 (115) observes

Selfish is defined as looking after one’s own desires, concerned with your own interests, needs and wishes while ignoring those of others (Encarta Dictionary).

What is the difference, if there is any, between being selfish and being self-interested? Between acting prudently and acting morally? Since we are not robots, of course there are moral selfish people and moral self-interested people. There is very little difference between selfishness or self-interested.

Selfish genes are beneficial to an extent; by looking out for yourself, you are reducing the amount of resources and energy wasted on the venture of pleasing others. It is theoretically more beneficial to act selfishly in any group situation, regardless of whether the society is cooperative or not. If you are a selfish individual in a highly cooperative group, you benefit from generous individuals without actually having to contribute yourself. If you are selfish in a selfish group, you are not detrimentally affected by exhibiting altruistic behaviors that are not reciprocated. However, in the real world and when social species are involved, there are heavy disadvantages to being selfish. Boehm (1997) and Fehr & Gachter (2002) describe the disadvantage to being a selfish individual in a social atmosphere via descriptions of altruistically based punishments. That is, if you are a selfish freeloader in a society, the cooperative members of a society will penalize you for this behavior. This punishment can come in a variety of forms: sexual deprivation, resource denial, exile, social dismissal, and social pressure. (Boehm 1997) The fitness of a selfish individual is going to be lowered by these punishments more than it would be lowered by acting in a cooperative manner.

Additionally, egoism accepts our intuitions that things such as killing, stealing, and lying are morally wrong. Egoists would say that egoism actually underlies commonsense morality and

Egoism and Altruism . Psychological egoism claims that whatever we do, we do out of self-interest. Give an example of an act you think is not done out of self-interest, and explain how the psychological egoist might try to interpret that act as selfish.

People are most likely to be self-centered when something isn't going their way. I think it's easier to be greedy when you have more to lose. If you have more to lose you and probably want more for yourself. If people are uncertain of the future I think they are more selfish. People are always going to be selfish so If they don't know what's going to happen they're probably going to be selfish. if you don't know if you're going to die tomorrow or live for 20 more years I think people would be selfish. They were the best so if they only had one day to live they would want to make it the best, and be selfish. When you have something to lose it's easier to be greedy and if you're uncertain of what's Happening it can lead to selfishness.

Selfishness means acting in one's rational self-interest. Contrary to popular opinion, all healthy individuals are selfish. Choosing to pursue the career of your choice is selfish. Choosing to have children—or not to have children—is selfish. Insisting on freedom and individual rights, rather than living under a dictatorship, is selfish. Indeed, even ordinary behaviors such as breathing, eating and avoiding an oncoming car when crossing the street are selfish acts. Without selfishness, none o f us would survive the day—much less a lifetime.