Arguments For The Ethical Egoism Theory

Ethical Egoism is a theory that could affect us all in our daily lives. Have you ever donated to charity or helped someone less fortunate than yourself? If you have you could say that you took part in Ethical Egoism Theory. An example of a modern version of Ethical Egoism is a project taking place in Fort Worth. The City of Fort Worth is making an effort to hire and house homeless people that reside in the city, to reduce their homeless population. In doing so they are employing the homeless to pick up trash around the city, in exchange, they are providing temporary housing and educating the people they are hiring to help move them into new positions. This is benefitting the city by reducing their homeless population and
There are several arguments for the Ethical Egoism. One of the main arguments comes from Ayn Rand. It allows a person to focus on what is best for them instead of trying to take care of everyone first before themselves. Since each life is important and the only one you get it should hold value over other things (Rachels, 2016). This seems like a valid point because if you did not focus on caring for yourself first how could you hope to assist anyone else, so an individual’s needs would need to come first, before all else. Another argument for Ethical Egoism is that while we can help other people, we do not actually know what is in their best interest. It might seem like it is in our best interest to help others, but we truly only know what we, or others who cannot assist themselves, need. If we took it upon ourselves to assist everyone we met, we would be taking away their right to make decisions for themselves. In the example that has been used for this explanation, the City of Fort Worth does not force these homeless people into these jobs or homes. They made the program available to anyone who is interested, and those people must take actions for themselves to enter the program. So, for anyone who does not desire to take part then they do not have to, yet others who want to try to move out of being homeless can take advantage of this
The main criticisms of Ethical Egoism focus around the fact that the theory allows for the individual to strive for what is in their best interest and that could allow for morally wrong acts to be committed (Rachels, 2016). Because if what someone felt was in their best interest hurt someone else, to the first person this would be considered acceptable and morally right since their needs and wants are the most valuable. This leads to the next argument, this would be contradictive in some situations (Rachels, 2016). Because if what one person felt was in their best interest, went against the best interest of another person this would create a contradiction since each person would attempt to work towards what was in their personal best interest and not the overall best interest. It would also allow for “morally wrong” acts to be considered moral since under Ethical Egoism striving to do what is in the individuals best interest is the correct and morally right thing to do (Rachels, 2016). These are major flaws in the theory since a theory cannot be correct if it goes against its own rules. In this situation, everyone would end up going in an endless loop trying to either avoid people aiming to go against their best interest or working to go against someone else’s best