Psychological and ethical egoism and altruism

Question 1

Why do people behave morally?

Answer 1

motivation, prosocial, antisocial

Question 2

What is prosocial behavior?

Answer 2

Cooperative, helping

Question 3

What is psychological egoism?

Answer 3

When all actions are ultimately motivated by self-interest

Question 4

What is ethical egoism?

Answer 4

When an action is morally right if and only if it maximizes the agent’s self-interest

Question 5

What is a descriptive claim?

Answer 5

How things happen to be (is)

Question 6

What is a prescriptive claim?

Answer 6

How things should be (oughT)

Question 7

What is egoistic behavior?

Answer 7

When an action is ultimately motivated by self interest desires alone (selfish)

Question 8

What is altruistic behavior?

Answer 8

When an action is ultimately motivated at least in some part, by some other interested desires (selfless)

Question 9

What is aversive-arousal reduction hypothesis?

Answer 9

When people think that helping is the way of relieving their distress

Question 10

What is empathy specific reward hypothesis?

Answer 10

People think they will be rewarded for helping

Question 11

What is empathy specific punishment hypothesis?

Answer 11

People think they will be punished for not helping

Question 12

What is psychological altruism?

Answer 12

Some actions are ultimately motivated by the interest in (the welfare of) others

Question 13

The objection from observation (psychological egoism)

Answer 13

1. If egoism is true, then no one ever acts in an altruistic way
2. People do at least on occasion, act in an altruistic way
3. Egoism is false

Question 14

Argument 1 (psychological egoism)

Answer 14

1. All voluntary actions are caused by desires
2. If you desire something, then you are interested in that thing
3. If you are interested in something, then you desire for that thing is self-interested
4. All actions are motivated by self-interest

Question 15

The argument from absence of evidence (psychological egoism)

Answer 15

1. Most of the time people act in an egoistic way
2. In the absences of compelling evidence that people sometimes act altruistically, egoism is probably true
3. There is no compelling evidence that people ever act altruistically
4. Egoism is probably true

Question 16

What is ethical altruism?

Answer 16

When maximization of an agent’s self interest is neither necessary nor sufficient for the moral rightness of an action

Question 17

What does it mean to maximize one’s self interest?

Answer 17

To perform the actions which give you the greatest net benefit

Question 18

The argument from psychological realism (ethical egoism)

Answer 18

1. If psychological egoism is true, then all actions are ultimately motivated by self-interest
2. If all actions are ultimately motivated by self-interest, then altruistic actions cannot be morally obligatory
3. If altruistic actions cannot be morally obligatory, the ethical egoism is true
4. Psychological egoism is true
5. Ethical egoism is true

Question 19

The argument from rationality (ethical egoism)

Answer 19

1. If you are morally required to do X (X is morally obligatory) then you have good reason to do X
2. If you do have good reason to do X, then doing X must promote self interest
3. If you are morally required to do X, then doing X must promote self-interest

Question 20

The objection from paradigm cases (ethical egoism)

Answer 20

1. It could maximize one’s self-interest to murder, rape, steal, torture, etc.
2. If ethical egoism is true, then an action is morally right if and only if it maximizes the agent’s self-interest
3. If ethical egoism is true, then acts of murder, rape, theft, torture, etc. could be morally right
4. Murder, rape, theft, torture, etc are morally wrong
5. Ethical egoism is false

Question 21

The objection from rights (ethical egoism)

Answer 21

1. If ethical egoism is true, then no one is morally required to respect the rights of others
2. Each of us is morally required to respect the rights of others
3. Ethical egoism is false

Question 22

The objection from competing interest (ethical egoism)

Answer 22

1. If ethical egoism is correct, then an action is morally required if and only if it maximizes the agent’s self-interest
2. The self interest of different agent’s need not be jointly satisfiable
3. Ethical egoism sometimes morally requires the impossible

Question 23

The objection from moral parity (ethical egoism)

Answer 23

1. If ethical egoism is true, then each person’s self interest trumps the interest of every other person
2. If person x’s self interest trumps the interest of person y, then there must be some morally relevant difference between x and y to justify this difference in priority
3. There is no such morally relevant difference
4. Ethical egoism is false