PHI 1103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Psychological Egoism, Selfishness, Egotism
9 May 2016
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Document Summary
Each year millions of people die from health problems caused by malnutrition. Over 5,200 children under the age of five die every day from dehydration brought on by diarrhea. Not only we respond to those who face health problems, or other problems, caused by a sudden crisis such as a massive earthquake or tsunami, but we also think we have an unwavering moral obligation to help the. The anser has profound consequences for our understanding of human nature and morality. There are two distinct answers (approaches to this question): psychological / ethical altruism: humans at least sometimes are altruistic, psychological/ ethical egoism: humans are always selfish. We must be clear on what the debate is about. Both advocates of altruism and egoism agree that people often help others, they disagree about why they do this. Defenders of altruism insist that sometimes at least people are motivated by an ultimate motive or desire for the well being of another person.
