CAS PH 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Ethical Egoism, James Rachels, Psychological Egoism

• School: Boston University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: CAS PH 150
• Professor: Cameron Anderson

Document Summary

Ethical egoism - action x performed by agent a is morally correct if and only if x is in a"s self interest. Compare this to another definition of ethical egoism: It is always morally correct to act in one"s own self interest. This suggests that there are other ways to act morally (ex. Sometimes it might be moral to act altruistically) whereas the first definition says that acting in your own self interest is the only way to act morally. The first definition is a stricter version of ethical egoism. Psychological egoism - people always pursue their own self interests. Every action is ultimately intended to satisfy some selfish desire of the one who performs it. Different from ethical egoism in that psychological egoism shows how people are by nature and does not make a judgement on whether or not the actions are moral. James rachels in not arguing against psychological egoism.