Week 6 - Moral Egoism

Question 1

Everyone should pursue their self-interest within limits set by rational considerations that maximise self-interest - a consequentialist theory

• Entails negative obligations to others (constraints as not to kill, cheat, steal etc.)
• Does not entail positive obligations to others (e.g. to help rescue, alleviate pain, etc.)

Consequentialism: An act is right or wrong solely by virtue of the goodness or badness of its consequences.

(Giving your estate to charity is better than taking it with you to your grave because it has better consequences)

Non-consequentialism: The rightness or wrongness of an act does not depend on its consequences.

(Surely, torturing a child would be wrong even if it helped protect more children by raising public awareness to child suffering)

Answer 1

Ayn Rand’s justification for Moral Egoism

Only life makes values possible and necessary. Nonliving things cannot pursue values

Only living things need to pursue values.

b. “Each individual’s own life is his own ultimate value.”

So,

One has no moral duty to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others, nor the right to sacrifice others for one’s own sake (No Positive Duties).

Objection:

Invalid – a naturalistic fallacy.

An individual’s valuing only her own life does not entail that she should not value the lives of others.