Ethical Egoism: Course Analysis

This course has led to many realizations in terms of moral principles. I have been forced to evaluate my views on anything and everything from the election process to the argument of whether or not one is born instilled with a moral compass or learns morals from the nurture of others. In particular, I thoroughly enjoyed discussion regarding Plato and his ideal city and the allegory of the cave. Work of other philosophers has also led me to find an answer regarding the reasons and ways in which our republic should be re-invented. Machiavelli in particular led many insights in terms of realism that can be directly applied to the current political situation within the United States.

David Shoemaker provides two theories of egoism in the text--psychological theory and ethical theory. Psychological egoism is the claim that all actions are done solely for the sake of one’s own self-interest. Ethical egoism simply states that all actions ought to be done for the sake of one’s own self interests. Shoemaker elaborates stating ethical egoism is the more attractive theory.

Utilitarianism is a theory within ethics that states that people should base their actions on what is best for the society. Ethical egoism is the exact opposite; it states that people should generally base their actions off of self-interest. It is impossible to say either utilitarianism or ethical egoism is correct, by looking into two case studies though, we can see how followers of each theory base their decisions.

Ethical egoism does take the human being's individuality seriously, and is the only philosophy that does so. And finally, 5. Thus Ethical Egoism is the philosophy that ought to be accepted. Mr. Rachel’s and I both disagree with Ms. Rand.

Healthcare professionals are faced with making multi-faceted decisions on a daily basis. These decisions are not just limited to clinical matters, but they include the total patient care experience. Because of emerging healthcare trends and complex health law and ethics, it is imperative that healthcare administrators have a professional organization that they can belong to. “The

Without a distinct framework, ethical egoism fails as a moral theory to assist moral decision making because it endorses the animalistic nature of humanity, fails to provide a viable solution to a conflict of interest, and is proved to be an evolutionary unstable moral strategy.

The following paper will investigate whether it is moral or immoral to apply strong affirmative action programs at Lethbridge College in attempts to increase the representation of male registered nurses. Further investigation into the topic will be done through the application of ethical egoism and the ethics of care.

Capitalism is more than an economic system-it is, in many ways, a philosophical view of life, a belief in how people should act and how the world should be. Capitalism even spills over into ethical decisions, based on a theory called Moral Egoism. Emmett Barcalow introduces the concept of Moral Egoism in chapter four of the third edition of his textbook, Moral Philosophy, on page 71. He describes Moral Egoism as the belief that one should make moral decisions based on one's own self-interest. Moral Egoism allows for behavior as genuinely helpful and benign as eating well and staying fit—since you would do this to boost your personal health, which is in your self-interest—and as sinister as lying, cheating, stealing, and even murdering—since

The theory of psychological egoism is indeed plausible. The meaning of plausible in the context of this paper refers to the validity or the conceivability of the theory in question, to explain the nature and motivation of human behavior (Hinman, 2007). Human actions are motivated by the satisfaction obtained after completing a task that they are involved in. For example, Mother Teresa was satisfied by her benevolent actions and activities that she spent her life doing. As Hinman (2007) points out, she was likely to reduce in activity if she experienced any dissatisfaction in her endeavors.

According to James Rachel, an author of “Elements of Moral Philosophy,” there two main arguments exist against psychological egoism.

Ethical egoism is a consequentialist moral theory. A consequentialist moral theory, says that an action is good if it brings about the best consequences for all persons involved. Ethical egoism says that an action is morally correct if it is in accordance with a person’s self-interest. In other words, an action is good if it brings about the best outcome for a person. Ethical egoism is a normative statement, meaning as a society this is how we should act. There are two major categories of ethical egoism, act and rule. Act egoism determines whether a certain action will produce the most good for an individual. While rule egoism looks at specific rules that if a person followed, would be in that person’s best interest (Vaughn).

The Consequentialist theory of Ethical Egoism sets out to prove that the morally right action is one that aims to maximise one’s own self-interest. The moral theory runs on the premise that the principle of self-interest accounts for all one’s moral obligations, therefore one ought to act in their own self-interest. This essay will provide three arguments for Ethical Egoism, and argue that they do not succeed in proving Ethical Egoism is sufficiently coherent and consistent when applied as a moral theory everyone should follow in the real world.

Behind every action that a person makes is an underlying question about what that person will get out of it. For this paper, I am going to be using The Fundamentals of Ethics by Russ Shafer-Landau and Psychological Egoism and Hobbes by Hun Chung in order to talk about and give more insight on psychological egoism and ethical egoism. There are many things to know and learn such as what these theories are and how they are different and alike as well as other components supporting each theory.

Psychological egoism is the belief that a person’s actions are prompted by their own selfishness. If every action in the world was done, only to fulfill one’s own selfish aspirations, then there would be no purely altruistic deeds. Moral egoism is the belief that people should do what is in their best self-interest; however, they have a tendency to carry out actions due to their genuineness. Based on its definition, morality is doing something because it is the “right” thing to do. Psychological egoism creates a threat to morality, because if a person is acting kindly, not because it is right, but because he seeks self-gain, then morality is non-existent.

By reflecting the importance and challenges of blending ethics in education, steps can be further taken to improve education in the future. Although it is tough to ensure that ethics is being taught completely to the students, but the efforts in teaching ethics still need to be taken seriously. Despite the challenges of infusing ethics in education, ethical education plays a part in developing well-rounded students, the building blocks of our nation. Last but not least, we hope that ethical education shapes a better