Psychological Egoism In Ayn Rand's 'Ring Of Gyges'

How would you describe the word ego? What about egoist, or egoism? These words are all related, but do they mean what you think? In Anthem, Prometheus believes the term “ego” is holy, but today many people think differently. Ego is a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. An egoist is a self-centered, selfish, and arrogantly conceited person. The term egoism is defined to be the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own actions.

Psychological egoism is the interpretation that humans are always inspired by self-interest, even in what seem to be acts of altruism. It claims that, when people choose to help others, they do so ultimately because of the personal benefits that they themselves expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so. Psychological egoism, which was widely recognized by psychologists and philosophers states that all human actions are motivated by selfish needs to benefit themselves. According to psychological egoists true altruism does not exist because the consequence of such an act leads to an increase in personal happiness. However, Joel Feinberg does not agree with that theory and in his essay he disagreed with the thesis that altruism

Philosophers have debated for centuries the question “Are humans are selfish or selfless?” There are two main arguments for debating human nature, ethical egoists and ethical altruists. Ethical egoists believe that “even though we can act in others’ interests because we are concerned for others, we ought always to act in our own interest” (Solomon et al 2012 p. 460). Ethical altruists believe quite the opposite; ethical altruism is the belief that “people ought to act with each other’s interests in mind” (Solomon et al 2012 p. 461). In discussing the four theories, psychological egoism, psychological altruism, ethical egoism, and ethical altruism, with my husband, there was not a clear dividing line for whether humans are selfish or selfless in nature. After much debate, we concluded that humans are born ethical egoists; however, ethical altruists are made through proper training, care, and nurture.

In Ayn Rand’s book Anthem, The character Equality 7-2521 also known as Prometheus ran into the uncharted forest after being told that his box of light was a sin to create because he now knew more than his brother’s in the uncharted forest he found out that the golden one had followed him. Then the two uncovered homes from the unmentionable times. In the uncharted forest he discovered the unspeakable word “Ego”. Throughout the book he expressed traits of an Egoist. But in the book because prometheus had been in a dystopian society where they had to think of themselves and their brothers as a whole they were not allowed to think of themselves. So was Prometheus really a egoist? Or was it just his little bit of selfish coming out after not ever being allowed to think about himself?

David Shoemaker provides two theories of egoism in the text--psychological theory and ethical theory. Psychological egoism is the claim that all actions are done solely for the sake of one’s own self-interest. Ethical egoism simply states that all actions ought to be done for the sake of one’s own self interests. Shoemaker elaborates stating ethical egoism is the more attractive theory.

There are many different meanings of the word egoist, and one of the most commonly found definitions would be "a self-centered, or selfish person; an arrogantly conceited person." When one is an egoist they tend to only care about themselves and not put others before them. People may get an egoist confused with someone's ego. The word ego means someone's sense of self-worth, self-importance, etc. As an example, in the book Anthem the main character states "I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end it is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose" (Rand 95). This quote is showing egoism because Prometheus is thinking about himself and his own happiness rather than the happiness of everyone around him.

“We made it. We created it.We brought it forth from the night of the ages.We alone.” (38) In the dystopian novel called Anthem by Ayn Rand a boy named equality lives in a society in which individuality is inconceivable and he is driven by his curiosity to learn which eventually led him to individuality and solitude when he leaves his society. Ayn Rand use equality's experiments with electricity to show equality develope from group mentality to absurd individuality illustrating her point that individuality rules over groups and that everyone should be entirely and only individual.

Ayn Rand was a woman born and raised in Russia. She is what one would call a very dauntless woman when it comes to her personal thoughts, and she is not fearful of sharing her said thoughts. She is a strong believer of Ethical egoism, to look out for one’s own self interest, and her blunt fashion of voicing her thoughts shocked most of the public. She also wrote a book, Anthem, as if to show what would happen if we solely relied on our government and fellow man, how we would revert to a time before technology and almost have a Hungergames type of segregation. Now, the government of today is not like the one described in Ayn Rand’s book, however, government official Rand Paul referenced her writings in his argument against the Energy Independence act of 2007, and may have unintentionally compared the two governments. There is no right or wrong way to claim his action as. Many believe it was incorrect to make this reference,

“People act for many reasons; but for whom, or what, do or should they act—for themselves, for God, or for the good of the planet?” (Moseley) An egoist would argue that one acts for one’s own self. More specifically, an ethical egoist is one who thrives to improve ones own self being, with much respect to morality. Ethical Egoism is the theory that one should pursue his or her own interest above all the rest. It is the idea that all persons should act from their own self interest in relation to morality.

Being that I am a recovering addict, I have been looking at my actions more in depth and have come to the realization that all of my actions had a motive to them I believe. I was acting on egoism rather than altruism. Altruism is defined as the unselfish concern of the welfare of others while egoism is defined as the belief that self-interest is the motive for all human conduct. Upon doing my fourth step inventory, I was able to see how my actions were used to manipulate people into having them do what I wanted, which would be a form of egoism. Although I may have thought I was acting altruistically, analysis proved that I was not doing a good deed expecting nothing in return.

70) . Behind every action that a person makes is an underlying question about what that person will get out of the action. According to Rachels, however, this remains an issue of human psychology as opposed to being one of ethics. That being said, psychological egoism does have serious costs for human morality. Should psychological egoism actually be correct, then it would mean that all of society is composed of selfish individuals who care only for their own gain; it would therefore be fruitless to discuss what people should be doing.

Ethical egoism claims that all our actions can be reduced to self-interest. This is a controversial moral theory which sometimes can be detrimental. Without a well-defined framework of the nature of self-interest, ethical egoism enlarges the animalistic nature of humanity in which can result in unfavorable consequences. Ethical egoism also fails to provide a solution when a conflict of interest arises. By only acting out of one’s self

The theory of psychological egoism is indeed plausible. The meaning of plausible in the context of this paper refers to the validity or the conceivability of the theory in question, to explain the nature and motivation of human behavior (Hinman, 2007). Human actions are motivated by the satisfaction obtained after completing a task that they are involved in. For example, Mother Teresa was satisfied by her benevolent actions and activities that she spent her life doing. As Hinman (2007) points out, she was likely to reduce in activity if she experienced any dissatisfaction in her endeavors.

Self-interest plays a motivator role in morality field that makes people can consider themselves without destroying the ability of others to meet their own wants. Starting with some key terms that Smiths mentions in his books: selfishness means someone who only knows to satisfy himself without consider others’ feelings and it might deprives others’ happiness (Black 2006, p.8). Comparing to selfishness, the term ‘self-love’ means ‘pure ego’ (Fitzgibbons 1995, p.137), while the term ‘self-interest’ is an updated version of self-love, because it contains virtue and leads to self-love into a moral level (Fitzgibbons 1995,

Essentially, the argument follows that each of us is most familiar with our own wants and needs. We do not know the wants and needs of others in the same way, nor are we equipped to always follow in others' best interests. It is then more efficient and logical to pursue our own needs and look out for ourselves so that others do not have to. This view also assumes that the individual is more able to provide for their own needs and also has that responsibility. Therefore, because the onus is on the self, society can be free to work for the betterment of larger projects that benefit everyone as opposed to taking care of individuals (Feinberg, 2008, pp. 520-3).