Egoism is a theory that aims at addressing what one should be or who he or she is and the motivation and goals of an individual’s action. There are two types of egoism; descriptive and normative. The descriptive variant portrays egoism as a factual description of human affairs. It argues that people carry out various activities based on their interests and desires. The normative variant, on the other hand, describes that people should be motivated, regardless of their current motivational factors. In this paper, I will discuss the psychological and ethical egoism. A precise definition of the two will be brought up, and I will also discuss how they address various phenomenon (Machan 1).
Psychological egoism is a descriptive theory that describes all human actions as fundamentally motivated by self-interest. The theory is supported by various philosophers among them Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Hobbes. According to the theory, every action taken by an individual aim at benefiting him or her either directly or indirectly. According to the philosophers endorsing the theory, people cannot act on something that does not benefit them. For example; an action by a motorist stopping to help someone whose car had broken down may be seen as selfless by critics. However, according to psychological egoism philosophers, the action by the motorist is selfish. This is because he or she does so to captivate a culture of helping those in need. Through this, he or she will get the help required in future if his or her car broke down too. It is therefore correct to say that selfish gain drives the action by the motorist despite the fact that the other individual benefit in the process.
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Ethical egoism, on the other hand, is a view that each of us is supposed to pursue our self-interest and we have no obligation to promote other people’s interests. Therefore, it is a normative theory. Philosophers who believe in this theory came up with several arguments to support it. One of the argument is that sacrificing one’s interest for the good of others denies an individual the fundamental value of one’s own life to oneself. The argument was put forward by Ayn Rand. She believes that nobody has a right to demand or expect any sacrifice from another. However, the argument assumes that there is a conflict between helping others and pursuing one’s interest which is not always the case. The second argument is that the action of pursuing one’s self-interest promotes the general good. The argument was put forward by Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith. People are more motivated when carrying out activities that benefit them as compared to when conducting operations on behalf of others. Due to this, one's action of selfishness leads to a general good for everyone. However, the argument is objected because it does not support ethical egoism. The argument supports that the welfare of the society as a whole is of importance which is against ethical egoism which believes that it should be everyone for himself or herself (Burgess-Jackson 538).
Psychological egoism supports ethical egoism in that it enlightens us on how people behave. People’s behavior determines their doings. Ethical egoism tells us how people should behave. However, when people’s behavior is guided by selfishness as the psychological egoism theory suggest, they then act towards achieving their obligation. In this case, they only care about themselves and serving their interests. Other people’s interest is not their priority, and hence they ignore them. Since it is believed that the psychological egoism is true, then the theory supports ethical egoism in the sense that it if people’s behavior is selfish driven, then their actions will only seek to achieve their own goals.
The relationship between psychological and ethical egoism have a relationship based on the fact/value distinction. Fact/value distinction refers to the thin line between what is true and what is right. Facts are proven to be correct. However, the value cannot be determined true or false by any method. The values are accepted by a particular society to be true, and they define why people behave in a specific manner. Psychological egoism lends support to ethical egoism when true. The behavior of an individual to take a course of action that only benefit himself or herself cannot be scientifically proven as wrong or right. This is the same case for the behaviors of individuals when they advantage without breaking the law. Through this, the distinction between facts and values as per the two types of egoism is shown (Machan 3).
There is not a way of arguing for ethical egoism without appealing to psychological egoism. The two theories are similar in that they put individual’s need first. They believe that people’s behavior is guided by their desire to benefit from a specific phenomenon. Some may seem generous, but the individual involved satisfy his or her desire through a certain action or behavior. The psychological egoism theory aims at describing behaviors of people while the ethical egoism describes the actions of the individuals. People’s reactions are based on their practices, and hence there is no way ethical egoism theory can be defined without referring to the psychological egoism theory.
Works Cited
Burgess-Jackson, Keith. "Taking Egoism Seriously." Ethical Theory and Moral Practice , vol. 16, no. 3, 2012, pp. 529-542.
Machan, Tibor R. "Egoism, Psychological Egoism, and Ethical Egoism." Wiley Encyclopedia of Management , 2015, pp. 1-4.
