Joel Feinberg Arguments Against the Theory of Philosophical EgoismFeinberg states that psychological egoism contains a tautology touching upon the idea that every person's motives of doing something are only for his best benefit, and therefore they are purely selfish. He believes that the only question which needs to be proved is that every action is accompanied by a quite particular motive - the selfish one. His reasoning is that we must look not at the origin of the motive, but at its aim. This is where a controversy is hidden, however. A motive directed towards someone can be selfish too. This can be easily seen if the third level of psychological egoism is taken as an example. A person can act good for the benefit of the other people, and still be prompted by the wish to gain the ultimate pleasure from acting in the "right" way. So, a person can be even other-directed, but still possess “selfish" motives. What should be kept in mind is that this is not some «bad" thing, it is just the way we all were made. And this design is what makes the world go around. |