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Is egoism rational?
Again and again you hear people saying, in slightly lees or more extreme ways, "it's up to ME what I do. I don't have ANY responsibility for my actions or any DUTY to consider the feelings of others."
There are lots of MORAL arguments you can use against that idea but for now I'm just going to concentrate on the RATIONAL ones against it.
If you assume that everyone has some kind of innate RIGHT to do whatever the hell they please then you've got NO sort of RATIONAL basis for objecting to ANYTHING that anyone else does. Fine, if you want to live in a cave or a desert island where there are no other inhabitants.
If you live in a community, or even a family, though, it's different. You simply HAVE to consider OTHERS in terms of your own behaviour. The rapist has the SAME "right" to rape you as YOU have to dress or behave sexually provocatively. There's no more basis for objecting to HIM raping you than there is for him objecting to you behaving like a slut. The thief has the SAME "right" to take your money as you have to hold on to it.
If you tamper with the brakes on a car and cause an accident or even a fatality, hey, that's cool, says the egoist. I was just doing what I FELT like doing and nobody has any right to blame ME for what happened.
If you feel like murdering your children, well, why not? You just happened to FEEL that way at the time and no one can BLAME you for what you did.This is what happens when you follow egoism to its logical concluskion. It produces total nonsense. Philosophers call what I'm doing a "reductio ad absurdum" argument because it shows that the logical CONSEQUENCES of an argument are - well, bull****.
Even in "game theory" it's been proved conclusively that altruism is a BETTER strategy than egoism. In real life if the only person you give a damn about is yourself, why the hell should anyone else give a damn about YOU? Your protestations and complaints about the behaviour of other people are just hypocritical bull**** if you're an egoist.
Of course most egoists ARE hypocrites. They want special treatment so that THEY can be selfish and uncaring but they expect OTHERS to consider THEM.
Why the hell SHOULD we? If they think they can treat other people like dirt,, why should they be surprised if sometimes they get paid back in their own coin?
But that's egoism for you. Not only self-centred nastiness but total hypocrisy as well.
Altruism rocks; egoism sucks!
Again and again you hear people saying, in slightly lees or more extreme ways, "it's up to ME what I do. I don't have ANY responsibility for my actions or any DUTY to consider the feelings of others."
There are lots of MORAL arguments you can use against that idea but for now I'm just going to concentrate on the RATIONAL ones against it.
If you assume that everyone has some kind of innate RIGHT to do whatever the hell they please then you've got NO sort of RATIONAL basis for objecting to ANYTHING that anyone else does. Fine, if you want to live in a cave or a desert island where there are no other inhabitants.
If you live in a community, or even a family, though, it's different. You simply HAVE to consider OTHERS in terms of your own behaviour. The rapist has the SAME "right" to rape you as YOU have to dress or behave sexually provocatively. There's no more basis for objecting to HIM raping you than there is for him objecting to you behaving like a slut. The thief has the SAME "right" to take your money as you have to hold on to it.
If you tamper with the brakes on a car and cause an accident or even a fatality, hey, that's cool, says the egoist. I was just doing what I FELT like doing and nobody has any right to blame ME for what happened.
If you feel like murdering your children, well, why not? You just happened to FEEL that way at the time and no one can BLAME you for what you did.This is what happens when you follow egoism to its logical concluskion. It produces total nonsense. Philosophers call what I'm doing a "reductio ad absurdum" argument because it shows that the logical CONSEQUENCES of an argument are - well, bull****.
Even in "game theory" it's been proved conclusively that altruism is a BETTER strategy than egoism. In real life if the only person you give a damn about is yourself, why the hell should anyone else give a damn about YOU? Your protestations and complaints about the behaviour of other people are just hypocritical bull**** if you're an egoist.
Of course most egoists ARE hypocrites. They want special treatment so that THEY can be selfish and uncaring but they expect OTHERS to consider THEM.
Why the hell SHOULD we? If they think they can treat other people like dirt,, why should they be surprised if sometimes they get paid back in their own coin?
But that's egoism for you. Not only self-centred nastiness but total hypocrisy as well.
Altruism rocks; egoism sucks!