Psychological Egoism as a moral theory describes self-centeredness. Psychological Egoism is a belief that human behavior or conduct comes under the influence of self-interest and not community. Psychological Egoism holds a strong ground that all humans get motivated to act or perform certain duties only in pursuit of their own advantage and not for others. Where Ethical Egoism is that we ought to be happy for others when at the same time making our self's or own being happy. For me I think it starts with morality in a person.
I would like to make the argument whether prosocial behavior is selfish or selfless. Firstly, What does it mean to be prosocial? Prosocial behavior is an act that is positively valued by society (A. Trace, Lecture 2, 2012), or they can be acts that intentionally benefit another human being. Secondly, I believe that prosocial behaviour can be both selfish and selfless, completely depending on the person who is doing the act.
Stimuli that is rewarding produces positive feelings in us, and stimuli that is punishing produces negative feelings. As some of the stimuli are other people it follows that some people make us happy, while others do not. According to the principles of operant conditioning, we are likely to repeat any behaviour that leads to a desirable outcome and avoid behaviour that leads to an undesirable outcome. This theory suggests that we enter into relationships because the presence of some individuals in directly associated with reinforcement – they produce a positive feeling for us – which makes them more attractive to us. As well as being attracted to someone who directly makes us happy, we also like people who we associate with a pleasant experience.
These impulses are perceived as unjustified temptations in natural law because “true happiness is not found in … wellbeing … but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love” (CCC 1723). However, Aquinas recognises that fulfilling the transcendent will of God – true happiness and divine perfection - is unfeasible in the presence of earthly distractions, and thus, a human can merely approach pure goodness asymptotically by achieving
He also added that people also have “social sentiments”, which is feelings that connect us with other people and make us concerned about their welfare as well. And therefore, Hume stated that we measure right and wrong by the true interest of humanity. Utilitarianism is a principle that we ought to do whatever will produce the greatest happiness. It is a combination of three ideas: First, the morality of action solely depends on its consequences. Second, we should do whatever will cause the most happiness or least unhappiness.
This just means that the act is correct as long as it brings happiness to the greatest amount of people. Sidgwick and Bentham believed in similar views and are seen as act utilitarians. Act utilitarianism is when you have to decide what action would bring about the greatest good so it depends on the consequences of the action so the rightness or wrongness of something can be changed. Rule utilitarianism believes that rules should be created by using utilitarian principles
Yet, if we observe that pleasure is good, we should be able to ask is good pleasure. However if an individual gains pleasure through inflicting harm can we conclude that good and pleasure are one and the same thing? In short ethical naturalism is unable to define good, yet continues to claim that ethical language is based on objective truth. Non Cognitive approaches to meta ethics such as emotivism and prescriptivism argue that ethical language is subjective. A. J. Ayer claims that ethical language
Aristotle also suggests happiness conforms to goodness of virtue (Kucukuysal and Beyhan, 2011). To be happy and good, one must make the right choices. Virtue is taught and learned. The ability to define happiness and decide what is virtuous is an individual choice based upon life teachings and experience. In order to make someone else happy, you must be happy with yourself.
For utilitarian school of thought, an individual strives to do the most good, even at the expense of the minority. Utilitarianism and Kantianism find the basis of their differences in the idea that the ends justify the means. Utilitarian beliefs support this idea while Kantian philosophy rejects this. Modern ethics were devised from these two basic ethical beliefs in an attempt to combine the best aspects. Generally, the morally “right” action benefits the majority while affecting the fewest amount in a negative way.
Venesha Meza SP3445 11/21/2012 Week 9 HW “Altruism and Pro-social behavior” Altruism is the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Pro-social behavior refers to any action that benefits other people, no matter what the motive or how the giver benefits from the action. Altruism involves true selflessness. While all altruisms acts are pro-social, not all pro-social behaviors are altruistic. For example, we might help others for a variety of reasons such as guilt, obligation, and duty or even for rewards.