Ethical Egoism via James Rachels, 1 of 2

[MontrealCharlie]

Psychological egoism is bullcrap.

If everything is done in the agent's self-interest, it's nothing more than a definition. It's like saying "All bachelors are unmarried men," as it doesn't tell you anything about the bachelors - it just defines the term.

Further, for anything to be a theory, it has to be testable + falsifiable. Psychological egoism cannot be either, for the psychological egoist would reduce every action to "You did X because you're inherently selfish."

[awfoste03]

I reject you lunacy and retain my opinion about you intelligence, you are stupid fine sir...

[Heraclitean]

Just a quick point on psychological egoism. It's just a psychological thesis -- the idea that all motivated action is motivated by self-interest. It's not a moral theory. It's not a popular theory - since it DOES seem possible for people to act on motives other than their own interest. It goes on all the time. But more importantly, ethicists who criticize ETHICAL egoism don't do so because PSYCHOLOGICAL egoism is faulty. They do it for some other reason. The two theories are unrelated.

[pookiehohn]

I'm a classical pianist and would love to know the music.

[brainpolice2]

I completly agree with this distinction between (A) one's subjective "selfish" motivation for an action and (B) whether or not the action actually benefits you, in real consequentialist terms. Where I might start to disagree with Rand is the rigidity of her language use, I.E. insisting that the action that doesn't really benefit you isn't "truly selfish". In general motivational terms, it is. The problem is that it doesn't actually benefit you, so it's "arationally selfish".