Psychological egoism

1. Psychological egoism • It’s a theory about human nature -- about how humans work. • Psychological egoism: Every human action is ultimately driven by a selfish motive. • experiencing pleasant feelings • avoiding unpleasant feelings • getting others to praise you • getting a good reputation

2. Not just cynicism or pessimism • If you’re cynical or pessimistic about human nature, you’re likely to hold that most people are lousy selfish finks. • But psychological egoism goes further and says that every action ever performed by any human is selfishly motivated.

3. The threat to morality • Morality sometimes requires us to behave unselfishly. • But, if psychological egoism is true, we’re not able to behave unselfishly (just due to human nature). • So if psychological egoism is true, it’s impossible to live up to our moral requirements.

4. Arguments forpsychological egoism • My motives: Any action I perform will be driven by motives that are mine, and not anyone else’s. So I am always seeking something for myself and not anyone else. • Pleasure of achievement: Whenever I get something that I want, I feel pleasure – a feeling of satisfaction. So the reason I went after it in the first place was simply to get that pleasant feeling.

5. Arguments, cont’d • Self-deception: We’re often wrong about our own motives. We often trick ourselves into believing that we’re more noble and virtuous than we really are. So it’s likely that our hidden motives are really selfish ones.

6. Arguments, cont’d • Moral Education: The way you teach children to behave is by punishing them with pain and rewarding them with pleasure. It seems as though people won’t cooperate without getting some benefit for themselves. So this is probably just human nature in general.

7. Arguments, cont’d • Evolution: According to basic evolutionary theory, the organisms whose traits get passed along are the ones whose traits help them to survive and reproduce in their (often competitive) environments. So only the most selfish organisms will survive, and their selfishness will be inherited by their offspring. So selfishness is a biological inevitability.

8. Moral philosophy in Britain • Hobbes was seen as an arch-egoist, and many moral theorists sought to refute him. • It was a time of great interest in the questions of egoism and morality. • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) • Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752) • Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746)

9. Butler against egoism • Psychological egoists often appeal to the fact that we experience pleasure when our desires are satisfied. • The idea is that our ultimate goal is just to experience these pleasant feelings. • Butler tries to turn the tables on the egoist.

10. Butler against egoism • This very fact – that we experience pleasure when our desires are satisfied – just goes to show that the desires are directed at other objects than our own pleasure. • I experience pleasure when I help people in need. But why do I experience this pleasure? Because I really want to help people in need, just for its own sake.

11. Butler’s argument 1. We experience pleasure when our desires for certain objects are satisfied. 2. The only way we could experience this pleasure is if we desired these objects for their own sake. 3. Therefore, our ultimate goal with these desires is not to experience the pleasure of desire-satisfaction, but rather to obtain the objects we desire.

12. Second premise • The only way we could experience this pleasure is if we desired these objects for their own sake. • “there could not be this pleasure, were it not for that prior suitableness between the object and the passion [the desire]” • “there could be no enjoyment or delight from one thing more than another, from eating food more than from swallowing a stone, if there were not an affection or appetite to one thing more than another”

13. A thought-experiment • What if my only desire is to experience the pleasure of desire-satisfaction? • I have no other desires – I don’t care about family, friends, music, reading, money, etc. • But I really want to experience the pleasure of desire-satisfaction.

14. Thought-experiment, cont’d • It looks like I’m out of luck. • It looks like the only way to experience the pleasure of desire-satisfaction is to have a bunch of desires for other things besides my own pleasure. • “Take away these affections, and you leave self-love absolutely nothing at all to employ itself about” (Butler)

15. Psychological egoism refuted? • So the only way I’ll be able to experience pleasure is to have a bunch of desires for things other than my own pleasure. • Psychological egoists often say that our only ultimate goal in acting is always our own pleasure. • So psychological egoists are wrong – in order to even have this pleasure, we must have other goals, desired for their own sake.

16. Psychological egoism refuted? • Egoist response: • “I agree that people have other goals besides getting the pleasure of desire-satisfaction.” • “But I insist that these other goals are selfish goals, like a desire for praise or reputation.” • But now that we agree that people have other goals, what reason do we have to think these goals are selfish ones? • Why not just say people have all sorts of goals, selfish and unselfish?

17. Other ways of achieving happiness and avoiding pain • “Look...Rev...I hate to see a man cry, so shove off out the office, there's a good chap.” (Monty Python’s ‘Motor Insurance Sketch’) • “If our sole intention, in compassion or pity, was the removal of our pain, we should run away, shut our eyes, divert our thoughts from the miserable object” (Hutcheson)

18. Why not just avoid pitiful sights? • If our goal is to avoid unpleasant feelings, then why don’t we just try to avoid the sorts of pitiful situations that make us feel bad? • At first we’d feel guilty after taking off, but eventually we could probably get used to it. • What a great deal! We don’t have to spend any money, time, or effort helping others, and we avoid the discomfort of compassion.

19. Sci-fi examples • Suppose there’s a futuristic pill that makes you immune to the discomfort of pity and compassion. • This means that you’d never feel bad when you encounter a poor unfortunate old woman. • Would you take it?

20. Sci-fi example • Or a futuristic pill that makes you very content and self-satisfied, without ever feeling any guilt or shame. • Unfortunately, there’s a law that says that once you take the pill, your family and friends will be tortured for a while and then executed. • Why not take it?

21. A God example • Suppose God comes to you and says you have two options: • 1. Feel really good for the rest of your life, but your children suffer • 2. Feel kind of depressed for the rest of your life, but your children prosper • Wouldn’t at least some parents select the second option?

22. The point of the examples • If some people would refuse to take the pills (or if some people would select the first option), then they would be knowingly sacrificing their own contentment for the sake of others. • But psychological egoism says that this is contrary to human nature. • So psychological egoism is false.

23. The arguments for psychological egoism considered • My motives: Any action I perform will be driven by motives that are mine, and not anyone else’s. So I am always seeking something for myself and not anyone else. • Objection: Just because a motive is your motive, doesn’t mean that it’s a selfish motive. People can have all sorts of motives, both selfish and unselfish.

24. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Possible response to the objection: But that’s just what ‘selfish motive’ means: “this motive is selfish” just means that it belongs to a particular individual. • But this is an idiosyncratic definition of ‘selfish motive’. Anyone can happily admit that all motives are ‘selfish’ in this strange sense. So this move is likely to lead to empty verbal disputes.

25. Aside: was Hobbes really an egoist? • He does say that we desire power after power, and that voluntary acts are always directed at the agent’s own good. • But notice how he defines ‘good’ and ‘power’: • Whatever is the object of a desire is good • Power is just the ability to obtain something thought to be good.

26. Aside: was Hobbes really an egoist? • For all his definitions say, we might have all sorts of unselfish desires • Then the object of these unselfish desires would be good (helping others, for example, might be good) • And power would be whatever helps us to satisfy these unselfish desires (for example, money, time, and energy to help others)

27. Aside: was Hobbes really an egoist? • Some Hobbes scholars now say that Hobbes wasn’t an egoist at all. • But he sure does like to focus on nasty selfish desires, and he sure is willing to reinterpret seemingly generous acts as selfish. • Maybe Hobbes just made a mistake – the mistake made by the ‘my motives’ argument.

28. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Pleasure of achievement: Whenever I get something that I want, I feel pleasure – a feeling of satisfaction. So the reason I went after it in the first place was simply to get that pleasant feeling. • Objection: Just because a pleasant feeling arises from the satisfaction of a desire doesn’t mean that this pleasant feeling was the ultimate goal of the desire. It might be nothing but a predictable side-effect.

29. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Self-deception: We’re often wrong about our own motives. We often trick ourselves into believing that we’re more noble and virtuous than we really are. So it’s likely that our hidden motives are really selfish ones. • Objection: Yes, we’re often wrong about our own motives. But this doesn’t mean that we’re always wrong. And this doesn’t mean that our hidden motives are selfish ones. Perhaps our hidden motives are unselfish.

30. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Moral Education: The way you teach children to behave is by punishing them with pain and rewarding them with pleasure. It seems as though people won’t cooperate without getting some benefit for themselves. So this is probably just human nature in general. • Objection: This isn’t the only way we teach children to behave. We encourage their development of a sense of empathy for others, and they begin to experience a sympathetic response to the feelings of others.

31. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Evolution: According to basic evolutionary theory, the organisms whose traits get passed along are the ones whose traits help them to survive and reproduce in their (often competitive) environments. So only the most selfish organisms will survive, and their selfishness will be inherited by their offspring. So selfishness is a biological inevitability.

32. The arguments for psychological egoism considered, cont’d • Objection: First, many organisms engage in seemingly altruistic behavior. Wild dogs will baby-sit pups while the rest of the pack hunts. A bird will give alarm calls to warn others about a hawk, thereby making itself more vulnerable. A sterile insect will work for the benefit of its fellows. Evolution has to account for this phenomenon. • But how can it do so?...

33. The evolution of altruism • There are two ways an individual organism can make sure that its genes are passed along • 1. it can make sure that it survives and reproduces • 2. or it can make sure that its close relatives survive and reproduce • After all, close relatives share genes. • The ‘inclusive fitness’ of an organism involves not just how well its traits help it to survive and reproduce, but also how well its traits help its close relatives.

34. The evolution of altruism, cont’d • This means that the genes that survive will belong to those organisms with altruistic traits (traits that lead the organism to help its close relatives). • Organisms built to respond altruistically to their close neighbors are likely to be helping their own genes survive. • So these altruistic traits will be selected for.

35. The evolution of altruism, cont’d • Worry: Isn’t this really selfish? • After all, there’s a difference between evolutionary altruism and psychological altruism. • Just because organisms behave in a way that sacrifices their own reproductive success for that of others, doesn’t mean they have feelings of direct concern and love. • We need to know what kind of motivational psychology is in place.

36. The evolution of altruism, cont’d • But why not psychological altruism? • For all we know, the most successful way to get organisms to respond altruistically to their close neighbors is to give the organisms genuine feelings of concern and love. • Egoistic organisms whose genes drive them to merely simulate concern and love might lose out in the competition. • Is there any reason to expect fake love to beat out real love?

37. A final worry forpsychological egoism • Psychological egoism purports to be a scientific theory • namely, it’s an empirical thesis about human psychology • There is a classic test for scientific theories: “What sort of possible evidence would count against this theory?”

38. The falsifiability test • Good scientific theories, some think, must be falsifiable – there must be some possible evidence that would disprove (or at least disconfirm) the theory • Why? Because we have to know how to test the theory. • We have to know what evidence to look for, as a means of confirming or disconfirming the theory.

39. An example of anon-falsifiable theory • Psychic phenomena • In order to see if certain people have psychic abilities, scientists have run tests in observed and controlled environments. • The ‘psychics’ almost always perform at the success rate of mere chance. • When the results come back, the psychics claim that the test environment interfered with their psychic ability (e.g., the scientists’ skeptical ‘vibes’ disrupted the psychic phenomena)

40. An example of anon-falsifiable theory, cont’d • This means that no matter how many tests we perform, in whatever circumstances, we can never confirm or disconfirm psychic phenomena • After all, the very test process itself might be interfering with the psychic’s abilities • So the theory is beyond evidence; it’s not scientific.

41. Application topsychological egoism • Psychological egoists have to tell us what evidence would count against their theory. • We have to know how to test it. • Otherwise, its status as a legitimate scientific theory can be questioned

42. The worry withpsychological egoism • The way psychological egoists respond to alleged cases of unselfish behavior is worrisome. • They always explain away the unselfishness in terms of some hidden motives. • If they get too gung-ho about this strategy, they might end up placing their theory beyond evidence.

43. A challenge topsychological egoists • What sort of possible evidence would count against your theory? • Is there any way we could show that your theory is wrong?