Psychological Egoism: What it is And Why it is Wrong

In this video I explain what psychological egoism is and why I think it is wrong. If you are reading this you will make an amazing and compelling comment or I will tell Satan to put a curse on you and your mother.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• psychological egoism
• egoism
• max stirner
• libertarianism
• self interest
• ayn rand
• philosophy
• metaphysics
• epistemology
• motivation
• analytic

[RageAgnstThClampdown]

Totally random question: Do you ever play that guitar in the background? Are you any good? Nice video by the way, I continue to be unimpressed with egoism.

[spawktalk]

@RageAgnstThClampdown There are three guitars in the background of this video lol, and yes I play them. I think most people would say im pretty good at it.

[barleyLEGALdotCA]

What if I unconsciously decided to punch out a homeless man in order to steel his chocolate cake, and felt really good about myself after? Would this just be a coincidence?

[spawktalk]

@barleyLEGALdotCA How would I know? It could be. Or maybe in that instance some unconscious process aimed at feeling good was the cause. Or maybe god mad you do it because he hates homeless people. I don't deny that sometimes there are subconscious egoistic motivations, I just deny that such is always the case.

[fringeelements]

You are officially not fat.

[45means45]

@spawktalk I bet that really boosts your ego

[Visfen]

I think the only argument against psychological egoism would be one based in altruistic instincts, but being as we have no control over that, and I wouldn't really reflect on it as being a motivation, it is more of a reflex, so psychological egoism is a priori true. We are consciously motivation by things because we have more of a desire to than we don't, be it regarding whatever, murdering someone or selling all your assets to help someone.

[stealthswimmer]

@spawktalk

What i said still holds true even if you can't calculate utility (if you're meaning "calculate" literally). Utility is ordinal. That being said, I think people "guesstimate"

[centerpointify]

i cant focus too well on what your saying because i'm totally freaking out on your messy room, disheveled shelves, broken lamp. my conscious and unconscious just escaped out of your window. i really enjoy your other videos and channel ! Subbed! <3

[thatkamikid]

I was also like to say that group sacrifice doesn't come up a lot in nature. I don't subscrbe to selfish gene theory, but humans only instinctively interact with only other humans. Not many people would sacrafice with anyone they didn't trust or sacrafice themselves for certain animals. It takes a lot to get a person to surrender themselves to the group.

[thatkamikid]

It was your unconscious or conscious desire to complement your girlfriend. YOUR desire. You only make people happy to satisfy yourself. It may not please you, but it would be displeasing for you to not complement her, how is that not selfish? Why did you complement her?

[revolutionarybaby]

what is more interesting though, is that, in most cases, individuals actually continue to try to convince themselves they have made the right decision, to please their egos and ease the dissonance being wrong creates.

[revolutionarybaby]

@adler2adler forgive my typos

[revolutionarybaby]

@adler2adler ...morality, relation, create bad judgment. What follows this is that because the individual sees these concepts are part of the self, they are acting for the self, regardless of effects. The issue I have though, is how provable that theory is. I am still looking into it. If you have another explanation I would love to hear it.

[revolutionarybaby]

@adler2adler it supports the idea that the ego is clouded by the super ego, but it is a product of cognitive psychology. Some thing, different terms, more accurate, but still an explanation. Cognative dissonance relates to this, it is a pull from that. Cognitive dissonance holds that individual are inherently biased to believe there decisions are right. The realization after real life application awakens them to being wrong. They would have never made this decision before hand, but hubris...

[adler2adler]

@revolutionarybaby “The theory holds that individuals might make these altruistic decisions believing they are the right decision. After getting hit by the bullet, buyers remorse comes. “ How does this support PE? Just because you did something altruistic and afterward you regretted doing it for self-serving reasons does not mean you were not being altruistic at the time you did it. Also, I'm not sure you are using the usual definition of CD...