get the most out of life unless he pays attention to the needs of others
on whose goodwill he depends”. He will sacrifice short term benefits in
favour of long term gains - “a person ought to do what really is in his or
her own best interests, over the long run. It [ethical egoism] endorses
selfishness, but it doesn’t endorse foolishness,” (Rachels, 2018, p.78) .
One argument in favour of self-interest as a moral code is that “if each
person looks after his or her own interests, it is more likely that everyone
will be better off” (Rachels, 2018, p.79). For example, if we try and
interfere by guessing the needs of others we are likely to get this wrong
and only make things worse. Olson encapsulates the argument well in
The Morality of Self-Interest. He writes, “the individual is most likely to
contribute to social betterment by rationally pursuing his own best long-
range interests,” (Rachels, 2018, p.79).
Intuitively this line of reasoning seems to provide support for the morality
of self-interest - what is more moral than acting in such a way as to
promote the betterment of society as a whole? The difficulty here, as
Rachels points out, is that this is not really an argument for ethical egoism
at all. We have to step back and look at the underlying motivation for our
actions. Under ethical egoism, the motivation for actions is self-interest,
not the betterment of society as a whole. Would the ethical egoist change
her behaviour if the betterment of society was no longer an outcome
of her promotion of self-interest? If she would, then she is not truly an
ethical egoist, but merely an “altruist with a particular view of what in fact
promotes the general welfare,” (Rachels, 2018, p.80). The betterment
of society is not in the true eogist’s contemplation.
Rand is a proponent of egoism but arrives at her conclusion from a
different direction. In essence she argues for the rejection of altruism in
favour of egoism. Rand shares the egoist’s view that the focus of morality
must be shifted from the interests of society and other individuals to the
self. She believes that when a moral theory requires a person to make
choices that prioritise society or other individuals (ie altruism) then “his first
concern is not how to live his life but how to sacrifice it” (Rachels, 2018,
p.81). Because altruism demands that the individual make sacrifices for
the good of society then altruism does not properly value the individual.
According to Rand if the life of the individual has “moral worth then we
must agree that this life is of supreme importance” (Rachels, 2018, p.81).
Rachels summarises Rand’s argument thus: ethical egoism is the only
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