Question

Answer the following question with respect to at least three of the following thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Hobbes, Hume, and Kant.

1) What is the relation between a human being's ultimate selfish interest and ethics/morality?

Answer 1

According to Kant, an individual’s actions play an important role in determining his or her moral worth. He talks about what makes someone a good person. Kant says that the individual’s reason for performing a particular task determines whether the person is good or bad. A person must be motivated to perform a task and if the motivation is driven by morality, then the person is said to have moral worth.

To establish a connection between selfish interest and morality according to Kant, if we perform a morally correct deed in order to fend for our satisfaction, then it does not make one a morally righteous person. For example, you win a beauty pageant and decide to spend the prize money by going on a luxurious holiday, but realize that it would be more satisfying if you donate the same money to sponsor for a poverty-stricken child’s education. This does not make you a morally worthy person because you did this out of your selfish interest. Only if you do it considering it is your duty, would you be considered as a morally worthy individual.

Therefore, according to Kant, a person must be aware of his duties and perform them regardless of his liking towards them. Only then can he be considered as a morally worthy person.

Augustine equates happiness with the attainment of wisdom. Since God is the eternal and most superior being of all, true happiness lies in loving and knowing God. This explains why people, who possess every luxury on Earth, are still not happy. This is because they are not in connect with the superior being and focus on things that are not so important for the attainment of happiness.

In order to establish a connection between selfish interest and morality, Augustine thinks that acts of free will are equal to a sin. He thinks human beings are presented with free choice, which they exploit, and ultimately use in to turn away from God, which according to Augustine is a sin and a violation of ethics.

Augustine says that, when free will takes advantage of its freedom and diverts away from goodness and the love of God, is a moral evil and a sinful act. It is God’s grace that can free our will from being a sinful act.

Hume accounts morality to be a result of moral sentiments rather than reason. He says that morality can be found in our sentiments and emotions since the actions that we perform do not do not have any morality in themselves. Hume’s view on morality is an amalgamation of different philosophical thoughts. According to him, moral knowledge has a lot to do with character, persons of decent character can be considered to be morally knowledgeable.

He is considered to be the founder of human utilitarianism. We can equate the relationship between a person’s selfish interest and ethics, in terms of Hume. Even though he argued that there is no consistent “self” that lasts over time, he said that the moral judgments made by a person, expresses his or her feelings.

He talks about what exactly he considers to be vices or virtues. If you help a person out of goodwill and it leads to both your happiness and the other person’s happiness, then it can be called a virtue. It becomes a vice if you perform a duty that is not favorable to the other person and is only beneficiary to you.