Compassionate Egoism
...to promote the individual. There are two different heads to this beast, both of which have some very good points, but fail to complete what a moral code should be comprised of. The first, ethical egoism, describes what humans should do, e.g. anything in their individual self-interests. The second, psychological egoism, describes what humans will do. It is important to make a distinction between the two. Ethical egoism says humans should act in a way that promotes the individual, be it holding money instead of giving to charity or not helping an old lady across the street. Psychological egoism, however, says what humans will do, almost as if it was wired into our brains, a kind of subliminal message telling us to watch out for ourselves. Though quite different, both of these theories are flawed.
Ethical egoism, as mentioned before, is the idea that a person should work at his or her self-interests above all else. Opponents of egoism would say that there are a few things wrong with that. First of all, ethical egoism is not equipped to handle conflicts of interest. Say, for instance that Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are running for president. In the case of ethical egoism, it would be in Mickey’s best interest to murder Donald. However, it would be in Donald’s best interest not to be murdered. So, in order for Mickey to achieve his self interests, he would have to take away Donald’s self interests. However, if both Mickey and Donald are ethical egoists, neither of them cares about the other’s interests. So stopping Donald from not getting murdered does not affect Mickey, he’s going to kill Donald anyway. Another argument opponents to ethical egoism have is that ethical egoism is arbitrary because it automatically picks the individual to be more important than everything else. Opponents would ask what it is that makes the individual so special, what is different...
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