Question

1. Suppose people always do what they want to do. Is that enough to show that psychological egoism is true? Why or why not?

2. Psychological Egoism is not an ethical theory, but a descriptive view of human behavior which states that human beings always act in their own self-interest. Given this, how might the truth of psychological egoism have implications for ethics?

Answer 1

Psychological egoism is a thought that humans are always interested to abide byby self-interest, even if that seem to be acts of altruism which means selfishness and act according to the benift of others .

Yes, Psychological egoism is true and it is a empirical claim and every action can be accepted Every human action is at its root a selfish act. This also focuses on how people live thier lives and how they would deal and go about life Psychological egoism says that even though one person’s acts might appear selfish externally and another person’s acts might appear unselfish, in both cases each person is just doing what they want to do, which proves the end result to be selfish.

Eg : If x wants to help the poor then X is doing a favour because x wants to do. if helping others is what X wants to do, that is what would generally be defined as altruism, but for a psychological egoist that doesn’t restrain the fact that X wanted to do it. It also means it is the sense of desire .

psychological egoism have implications for ethics

Ethical egoism is a action performed by an individual tp persue his/her own interest .It assumes that what really matters is the well-being of society as a whole, the general good. t also means at the end everyone looks out for themselves .Sacrificing one’s own self interests for the benifit of others is not accepted as the fundamental value of one’s own life to oneself.