Psychological egoism


 * For other uses, see Egoism (disambiguation).

Psychological egoism (also known as psychological hedonism), is the view that we are always motivated by self-interest, even in seeming acts of altruism. All human choice is motivated by a desire for pleasure (or an aversion to pain). It can be contrasted both with ethical egoism, which is the view that we always ought to be motivated by self-interest and disregard the interests of the community. It is controversial, since many see it as an over-simplified interpretation of behavior, and it cannot rule out altruism without being contradicted by evidence. Rather, it claims that when sane people choose to help others, it is because of the pleasure they themselves obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so.

Among philosophers, Max Stirner is best known for holding a view called psychological egoism.

The problem of apparent altruism
The theory seems at first inconsistent, because many acts that appear to be altruistic are common and well known (e.g. self-sacrifice, gratuitous help). The proponents of psychological egoism nevertheless consider that these acts are deep down selfish, because the real motive of these actions is that they bring something to the person who accomplishes them. This "something" is generally referred to as good feeling, and it includes such things as:
 * Satisfaction of a desire to comply with a given moral code
 * Social recognition or respect
 * Feeling of power, by making notable changes in one's environment

Criticism
Critics of psychological egoism often reject it on the grounds that it is non-falsifiable; in other words, it is designed in such a way as to be impossible to prove or disprove, because psychological egoists claim that apparent acts of altruism are simply the acts of individuals seeking a good feeling or following social incentives to be seen to be altruistic. Since this good feeling is impossible to detect, let alone measure, it is impossible to prove that all people experience it every time they perform altruistic acts.

But even accepting the theory of the universal good feeling, it is difficult to explain, for example, the actions of a soldier who sacrifices his life by jumping on a grenade in order to save his comrades. In this case, there is simply no time to experience a good feeling for one's actions.

Finally, psychological egoism has also been accused of using circular logic: "If a person willingly performs an act, that means he derives personal enjoyment from it; therefore, people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment". This statement is circular because its conclusion is identical to its hypothesis (it assumes that people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment, and concludes that people only perform acts that give them personal enjoyment).

One especially searching examination of the arguments for and against psychological egoism may be found in Unto Others (1998), by Elliot Sober and David Sloan Wilson.

References and further reading

 * Will Crouch, "Are all people Egoistic?"