PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Psychological Egoism, Ethical Egoism, Egotism
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Psychological egoism- all people are selfish in everything they do; no one is altruistic. Taking unpleasant means to an end (dentist visit) The agent is still doing what she most wants to do. Right, but the content of a desire makes the act unselfish. If an agent has a desire to help others, then she is not selfish. She is satisfying her desire, but the content of the desire makes it not selfish. The defender of pe might try to interpret all desires so that they seem selfish. (abe. Falsifiable: it must be possible for some evidence to count against it; there must be some imaginable conditions that count against it. Ethical egoism-humans have no obligations to do anything except what is in their self- interest; the interests of others are not important. Thomas hobbes argued that the ethical egoist would not be distinguishable from the man of common morality.
