how Singer could criticise our modern Macbeth for moving into Duncan ’ s house in order to improve the quality of his life . This ‘ vaulting ambition ’ that Macbeth feels is his motivation to improve his own life , which one can hardly be critical of being ambitious . Ambition is not a priori immoral as Singer suggests , to accept that selfinterested acts are immoral would be to suggest that something like eating healthy food for one ’ s health benefit is immoral . It is here evident that the contrast between ‘ selfinterested ’ and ‘ moral ’ can quite easily be reduced to absurdity , with Singer taking issue with murder rather than partiality . It appears that we must make a distinction between ‘ selfish ’ and ‘ self-interested ’ acts . A selfish act could be defined as an act which is committed at the expense of another . Taking this definition , we can see where Macbeth ’ s act of murder is selfish as it is committed at the expense of Duncan ’ s life thus making it immoral . Conversely , we can see now where househunting Macbeth ’ s act is merely self-interested and cannot be counted as selfish therefore making it a moral act .
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Singer states later in Practical Ethics , Singer states that “ my own interests cannot , simply because they are my interests , count more than the interests of anyone else ”. Drawing on what has already been said in this essay , it might be clear how this statement might entail some nonsensical moral consequences . In order to fully express the potential consequences of living by this maxim , I will use Cottingham ’ s example of house painting . He asks us to imagine that our house needs painting because the job is overdue , and it is in my interest to maintain my house . Singer maintains that because this is in my own selfinterest , I have no moral basis for justifying the upkeep of my own house over the upkeep of my neighbour ’ s house . Francis Hutcheson states in “ An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue ” ( 1725 ), that the good man must “ treat himself as he would do a third person who was a competitor of equal merit ”. What I must do here is weigh up my neighbour ’ s interests with my own interests as if I were an impartial spectator , without
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