Abstract
Egoism and altruism have been conceived as ethical parallel theories. The egoist believes that a person’s ultimate aim is her own self-interest. This self-interest is the basis of morality. Proponents of altruism believe the complete opposite. Altruistic behavior is driven by a desire to benefit another person other than self for that person’s sake. The Egoist does not necessarily disapprove actions that benefit others, but argues that the motivation behind such actions is first to benefit self. The egoist dismisses cooperative relationships that are motivated in benefiting the other for the other’s sake. This paper looks at the raging debate between these two ethical approaches.
Egoism versus Altruism
Egoism
The contemporary moral discourse informs the debate on the distinction between egoistic and altruistic motivation. Ethical egoism claims that a person morally executes some act if and only if, and because, executing that action enhances that person’s welfare or self-interest. All approaches to egoism involve the explication of self-interest. Desire accounts ascertain self-interest with the fulfillment of a person’s desires (Levit, 2014). A person’s wish for own preference is self-regarding a desire for the wellbeing of others is not. Every person has one ultimate goal: self-welfare.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A popular objection to egotistic behavior is that a person must wish for things other than her own welfare in order to achieve welfare. For instance, if a person derives welfare from playing tennis. Unless that person desired, for its own sake, to play tennis, she would not derive welfare from playing. An individual’s welfare may simply consist of the fulfillment of self-regarding desires. An issue of concern is how much egoism contrasts in content from other moral theories (Levit, 2014). It differs a lot. Moral theories such as utilitarianism, Kantianism, and reasonable morality need that a person gives cognizance to the interests of others. Other theories at times require sacrifices that are not compensated for, especially when the loss to a person is minor and the gain to others is significant. Opponents present the following argument; that all people require the cooperation of others to obtain their welfare such as friendship or defense (Shaver, 2019). If an individual behaves as if she gives no concern to others, others will not cooperate with her. For instance, if she breaks the other person’s promises to meet her welfare, others will refuse her promises. It is therefore only rational that she minds the concern of others.
Egoism is not a popular moral concept. The reason being that it goes against certain basic assumptions that the majority of the people have concerning what ethics involves. It offers little solution when conflicts of interest problems arise. It also goes against the principle of impartiality. Ethical egoism says that we should not even make an effort to be impartial. It holds that we should differentiate between ourselves and others, and give ourselves favored treatment.
Altruism
The term altruism is contrary to egoistic and self-interested. It does not imply behavior motivated solely by self-welfare but the opposite. Egoism could even to an extent be deemed malicious when one harms simply for the sake of harming them. Altruism is an action taken deliberately to benefit another person other than the agent for that other person’s sake ( Kraut, 2016). There is a common assumption that people ought to be altruistic even if it is to an extent. The common question is if people genuinely act out of altruism or is the behavior ultimately motivated by meeting their own welfare.
Altruism takes two approaches. Acts considered altruistic do not only involve those intended to do good to others but also those undertaken to avoid harm to others. Altruism need not comprise self-sacrifice, and it is still altruism even when done from a combination of motives, some of which are self-interested. Pure altruism is when a person does an act entirely from altruistic reasons. In this case, self-interested motives are completely absent. There is no reason to be uncertain that people can and should be altruistic to some extent. Utilitarians and consequentialists argue that one is to give equal weight to the good of every human being. This is the extent to which people should be altruistic.
Conclusion
The notion that humans might only act to promote their own self-interest appears to alienate morality though egoists argue that self-interest is the foundation of morality. Egoism remains an unpopular moral principle because it contravenes impartiality and exhorts selfishness. Altruism, on the other hand, is a “brother’s keeper” approach. The main question about the nature of human motivation will continue to linger.
References
Kraut, R. (2016). Altruism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism/
Levit L. Z. (2014). Egoism and Altruism: the “Antagonists” or the “Brothers”? Journal of
Studies in Social Sciences. file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/713-1603-1-PB.pdf
Shaver, R. (2019). Egoism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/
