PHIL 120W Chapter Notes -Supererogation, Habituation, Ethical Egoism
20 Oct 2012
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Ethical egoism your only moral duty is to look out for your own happiness, to do the best job i can of getting what i want. I ought to do whatever makes me happiest. Not to be confused with psychological egoism all people always act so as to maximize their own happiness. Two versions of ethical egoism: everyone else ought to do whatever makes me happiest. (non-universalizable, each person ought to do whatever will make them happiest. (universalizable / universal ethical egoism) The first view has two problems: (1) egoism is not a moral view everyone can agree on. (2) this sort of egoism doesn"t satisfy what seems to be a fundamental feature of any moral theory worthy of the name. It is the notion that if an action is wrong for one person in a given situation, it is also wrong for anyone else in the same situation. A view everyone in a society could share.
