Introduction to Ethical Egoism
Copyright © 2007 Bruce W. Hauptli
As Louis Pojman notes (in an earlier edition of our text book), we need to distinguish between several different "egoistic" positions:1
1. Psychological Egoism--each individual always does those acts she perceives to be in her own best interest.2. Personal Egoism--I always do those acts I perceive to be in my best interest.
3. Individual Ethical Egoism--each individual ought to do what serves my self-interest.2
4. Universal Ethical Egoism--each individual ought to do those acts that will best serve her own self-interest.
1 is descriptive, 2 is a statement of personal intention (selfishness), 3 and 4 are prescriptive.
We will begin our study of ethics by reading a selection from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan—who Pojman characterizes as a psychological egoist (who also may also be, and I would say “is,” a universal ethical egoist—contrary to what Pojman implies).
When you have completed the readings in this section of the course, you may want to take up Kai Nielsen's "Why Should I Be Moral Revisited?" in the American Philosophical Quarterly v. 21 (1984), pp. 81-91.
Notes:
1 Cf., Louis Pojman, "Ethical Egoism," in Ethical Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings (fourth edition), ed. Louis Pojman (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2002), pp. 63-66.
2 Pojman notes that "interestingly enough, while individual ethical egoism seems implausible, it may be the central position of many people who define ethics as that which serves God's interests and pleases god....What makes anyone so special that all of us have an obligation to grant that person's interests sole or primary concern?" (ibid., pp. 64-65).
Last revised: 01/18/2007.