THEORIES

Theories

Theories

Psychological Ethics

Psychological egoism seems to rest on either confusions or false claims. If self-interest is interpreted in a narrow or selfish sense, then psychological egoism is simply false. There are clearly many generous people who often sacrifice their own interests, including their money and time, to help others. Indeed, most of us are generous on some occasions. Some defenders of psychological egoism admit this fact but claim that it is irrelevant because even a person who is generous is acting on his or her own desire to be generous and, hence, is really being self-interested (MacIntyre, 2007).

The problem with this ...