Ethical Theory

Ethical and Psychological Egoism

Ethical Egoism

Ethical egoism is all about self interest. It is the normative theory which states promotion of one's self good is always ethical act. As far as an individual is looking for personal interest and acts accordingly, it is in accordance with morality. Some researchers consider it as problem as they think if individual just think about his own interest than these interests can be earned at the cost of other's interest (Moseley, 2005).This thing seems to be odd for society. If everybody thinks about their self interest, then it is very difficult to protect the interest of everybody. Individuals just do everything just for their self interest they will not care about the interests of others. So, ethical egoism seems to be dangerous for a democratic society.Psychological Egoism

Psychological egoism is all about deep down motivation by what we perceive to be in our own self interest. It means that whatever we perceive that it is in our self benefit we will go for it. Sometime we could have unselfish motives. For example, if Sam saves the life of Laura from a burning office building, then there must some motivation to do this. Sam simple couldn't put his life in danger to save Laura; psychological egoist argues that Sam's apparently unselfish act is motivated by the ultimate goal of benefiting himself. This benefit could be anything like proving himself as a good person in society or whatever. So, psychological egoism compels you to do the acts, which eventually give you feeling of achieving self interest (Moseley, 2005).

Everybody perceiving something better for them doesn't mean that it is better for them. This could have an adverse impact on the society in the coming time. People should have enough

intellectual to understand what is good or bad for them.Hobbes' View of Human Beings in a ...