Professional Ethics

1. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (FEST)
INDUS UNIVERSITY KARACHI
BEE(POWER) (BATCH 19)
PRESENTATION TOPIC
Ethical Egosim
• Group Presented by: Abdul Basit
• Roll Number: 2426-2019
• Group Presented by: Fawad Hussain
• Roll Number: 2437-2019
• Group Presented by:Shahabuddin
• Roll Number: 2321-2019
• Group Presented by: Aziz U Rehman
• Roll Number:-2019

2. CONTENT TABLE
Introduction
The Ring of Gyges —Plato
In Defense of Ethical Egoism —Ayn Rand
Egoism and Altruism—Louis Pojman
Another Paradox of Egoism?
A Critique of Ethical Egoism —James Rachels
A Critique of Ethical Egoism —James Rachels
Egoism as morality?
The Argument that We Always Do What We Want to Do

3. INTRODUCTION
Ethical egoism —The theory that the morally right action is the one that
produces the most favorable balance of good over evil for oneself.
Psychological egoism —The view that the motive for all our actions is self-
interest.
Ethical egoism is not synonymous with selfishness or self-indulgence.
 Ethical egoism is the radical idea that the principle of self-interest accounts
for all of one’s moral obligations.
 Sometimes one’s interests may happen to coincide with the interests of
others—in that by helping oneself, one will coincidentally help them, too.
 The benefit to others is not what makes
an action right, however. An action is
right only insofar as it is to one’s own
‘advantage.’

4. THE RING OF GYGES —PLATO
Glaucon’s story is meant to show that all people believe in their hearts
that injustice is more profitable than justice.
Glaucon argues that the unjust life is better than the just life.
Socrates says that we should choose the life of the “unsuccessful” just
person because it is to our advantage to be moral.

5. IN DEFENSE OF ETHICAL EGOISM —
AYN RAND
 Selfishness is a virtue.
 Under a morality of sacrifice, the first value you sacrifice is morality; the
next is self-esteem.
 The achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life.

6. EGOISM AND ALTRUISM—LOUIS POJMAN
 The paradox of egoism is that to reach the goal of egoism, one must give up
egoism and become an altruist.
 Rand’s argument for the virtue of selfishness seems flawed by the fallacy of
false dilemma.
 The main argument for ethical egoism rests on psychological egoism.

7. ANOTHER PARADOX OF EGOISM?
Can the proponents of ethical egoism coherently urge others to become ethical egoists?
It is in the best interests of the ethical egoist not to urge others to do what is in their own
best interests because those might conflict with his.

8. A CRITIQUE OF ETHICAL EGOISM —JAMES RACHELS
 Ayn Rand’s argument for ethical egoism relies on picturing the alternatives to
egoism in an extreme way.
 Ethical egoism is an arbitrary doctrine in the same way that racism is.
 We should care about the interests of other people for the very same reason
we care about our own interests.

9. A CRITIQUE OF ETHICAL EGOISM —JAMES RACHELS
 The arguments for ethical egoism all fail to establish the theory.
 Ethical egoism conflicts with the fundamental principle of moral impartiality.

10. EGOISM AS MORALITY?
 Other people’s interests count, from a moral point of view.
According to ethical egoism, however, we
have no duties to others; in fact, each
person ought to pursue his or her own
selfish interests exclusively.

11. THE ARGUMENT THAT WE ALWAYS DO WHAT WE WANT TO DO
 The actions of even the so-called altruist are
merely dictated by selfish desires to do what he
or she most wants to do.
 Since this is so, psychological egoism must be
true.

12. THE ARGUMENT THAT WE ALWAYS DO WHAT WE WANT TO DO
! This is a flawed argument.
 There are things we do, not simply because we want to, but because we feel
that we ought to.
 The mere fact that you act on your own desires does not
mean that you are primarily looking out for yourself; it all
depends on what you desire.
 If what you want is to help someone else, then your motive is
altruistic, not self-interested.
So-called altruistic actions produce a sense of self-satisfaction in the person who
performs them.
 People sometimes seem to act altruistically, but it is not hard to discover
that the ‘unselfish’ behavior is actually connected to some benefit for the
person who does it.
 Mother Teresa’s actions, for example, were motivated by the
belief she would be handsomely rewarded in heaven

13. THE ARGUMENT THAT WE ALWAYS DO WHAT WE WANT TO DO
! This argument is likewise badly flawed.
 The fact that one has a self-interested motive doesn’t mean that one doesn’t
have benevolent motives as well.
 If I see a child drowning, my desire to help that child will usually be greater
than my desire to avoid a guilty conscience.
 We may derive satisfaction from getting what we desire, but the object of our
desire is not usually the feeling of satisfaction itself.
 Our desire to help others often comes first; the good feelings we may get
are merely a by-product.
 Every attempt to use the theory to account for all human action seems
strained and implausible.
 Psychological egoism is not a credible theory.
 Thus, it is not pointless to talk about whether we should care about
others.