egoism Essays (224 words) - Philosophy Of Life, Egoism,

EGOISM Egoism can be a descriptive or a normative position. Psychological egoism, the most famous descriptive position, claims that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare. Normative forms of egoism make claims about what one ought to do, rather than describe what one does do. Ethical egoism claims that it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right that it maximize one?s self-interest. Rational egoism claims that it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be rational that it maximize one?s self-interest. All forms of egoism require explication of ?self-interest? ( or ?welfare? or ?well-being?). There are two main theories. Preference or desire accounts identify self-interest with the satisfaction of one?s desire. Often, and most plausibly, these desires are restricted to self-regarding desires. What makes a desire self-regarding is controversial, but there are clear cases and counter-cases; a desire for my own pleasure is self-regarding; a desire for the welfare of others is not. Objective accounts identify self-interest with the possession of states (such as virtue or knowledge) that are valued independently of whether they are desired. Hedonism, which identifies self-interest with pleasure, is either a preference or an objective account, according to whether what counts as pleasure is determined by one?s desires.