ASSIGNMENT 4 “ME, ME, ME!” – EGOISM

ASSIGNMENT 4 “ME, ME, ME!” – EGOISM

PART A: 1. Identify which one is the most likely egoist option: Option C: “It’s hard to say it, but this just means less people competing with me for scarce opportunities and resources”. 2. Explain why you think this is the case: To my understanding of an egoist it is someone being wholly self-centered and self-motivated. For me option C is just that, this person is thinking only of themselves and what they will have to lose or gain out of the situation. They are not thinking twice about the other person’s well being. This makes me think of the British Political Philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s book ‘Leviathan’, “No man giveth but with intention of good to himself; because gift is voluntary; and of all voluntary acts the object to every man is his own pleasure.” In its strong usage, egoism claims that people always act in their own interests, and, cannot but act in their own interests, even though they may disguise their motivation with references to helping others or doing their duty. Also, by reading Ayn Rand’s book ‘The virtue of selfishness’, it states “No one ever really sacrifices himself. Since every purposeful action is motivated by some value or goal that the actor desires, one always acts selfishly, whether one knows it or not.” So she is describing psychological egoism the view that humans are always motivated by self-interest, even in what seem to be acts of altruism. In other words, it claims that, when people choose to help others, they do so ultimately because of the personal benefits that they themselves expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so.