Robert Cavalier
Philosophy Department
Carnegie Mellon
Part I History of Ethics
Preface: The
Life of Socrates
Section 1:
Greek Moral Philosophy
Section 2:
Hellenistic and Roman Ethics
Section 3:
Early Christian Ethics
Section 4: Modern
Moral Philosophy
Section 5: 20th
Century Analytic Moral Philosophy
Part II Concepts and Problems
Preface: Meta-ethics,
Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics
Section 1:
Ethical Relativism
Section 2:
Ethical Egoism
Section 3:
Utilitarian Theories
Section 4: Deontological
Theories
Section 5: Virtue
Ethics
Section 6: Liberal
Rights and Communitarian Theories
Section 7: Ethics
of Care
Section 8: Case-based
Moral Reasoning
Section 9: Moral
Pluralism
Part III Applied Ethics
Preface: The
Field of Applied Ethics
Section 1:
The Topic of Euthanasia
Multimedia
Module: A Right to Die? The Dax
Cowart Case
Section 2:
The Topic of Abortion
Multimedia
Module: The Issue of Abortion in
America
Postscript:
Conflict Resolution
Ethical Egoism
Psychological and Ethical Egoism
As a metaethical theory of motivation, psychological egoism asserts the descriptive claim that all of our actions can be reduced to self-interest: "Whenever people do something, it is only because they think something desirable for themselves will result from it." The claim is descriptive and thus open to counterexamples, and it is broad, stating a reductionistic thesis regarding all of our actions. (Contrast psychological egoism with the psychological state of sympathy, where 'the weal and woe of the other becomes the motive for our action'.)
It is interesting to note that while egoism rests on the principles of human psychology, a number of studies in the psychology of moral development seem to suggest that 'egoism' is in fact only a first stage in actual moral development.
Ethical egoism is a normative theory that states that our actions ought to be done from the perspective of self-interest. One of the problems with this position is that it might not be in one's self-interest to have eveyone act from the perspective of self-interest. This 'state of nature' would not be desirable (in Hobbes' terms, life would be "beastly, brutal, and short") and so it might ultimately be in one's self-interest to enter into a contract with others that would place restraints upon self-interested actions.
See excerpts from the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Egoism.
