Book Reviews

JAMES RACHELS: EGOISM AND MORAL SCEPTICISMQuote:

“Clearly, if either of these views is correct, then “the moral institution of life” (to usButler’s well-turned phrase) is very different than what we normally think. The majority of mankind is grossly deceived about what is, or ought to be the case, where morals areconcerned.”

What I Expect To Learn:

I expect to learn more about egoism and moral scepticism. Moreover, I would like toknow how James Rachels, the author, view about egoism and moral scepticism. I also wantto learn about Psychological and Ethical Egoism.

Chapter Review:

The first thing which James Rachels discussed is the legend of Gyges. The saidlegend talks about a shepherd who finds magical ring in a fissure caused by an earthquake.The magical ring was said to have powers which allowed the wearer to become invisiblethus enabling him or her to do whatever he desires without being noticed by anybody. Heused the ring for the purpose of gaining wealth and power. The shepherd used the ring toseduce the queen, kill the king and become the new king of their lands.With the said legend, Rachels have discussed how a so-called virtuous man wouldbehave and how this person would behave differently from the rogue. He said that avirtuous man would behave no differently from a rogue. Why, you might ask? It is for thereason that a person thinks about his self-interest. After all why would he continue to be “moral” if he doesn’t benefit from it and if he doesn’t think he would not gain any advantagefrom his actions, why would he do it? If I were in the same situation, I honestly think I’d bethinking the same. Why would I do something that doesn’t benefit me? And so, I’d donothing that would not be advantageous to me.I got really confused when Rachels discussed psychological and ethical egoism. Atfirst glance, both look the same with the other but through careful reading, both are verysimilar to each other. Psychological egoism is a view wherein a person is selfish. He onlythinks about himself and whatever action he does is for his personal gain and to theiradvantage. Their actions revolve around their self-interests which mean they do somethingfor the sake of their personal interests because it will give them a great advantage. On thecontrary, ethical egoism is a view wherein a person acts for his own gain but instead of revolving around, the person’s act is revolving outside his self-interest. This means that hedoes something that he knows would gain him something but out of his self-interest.He also talked about three confusions which were mainly about the confusion if selfishness with self-interest, the assumption that every actions is done either from self-interest or other-regarding motives and the common but false assumption that a concernfor one’s own welfare is incompatible with any genuine concern for the welfare of others.Honestly speaking, I only understood the first confusion while I didn’t get the two other atall. The first one is about our confusion about selfishness and self-interest. The issue here isthat most of the time, we interchange the two with each other when in reality, selfishnessand self-interest are two different things. Selfishness is an act that benefits only one person

and does nothing give consideration for the welfare and sake of other people. Self-intereston the other hand, is an act which in which a person does something that does not harm theinterest of other people.According to Rachels, we shouldn’t hurt other people for the reason that it wouldharm other people. In relation to this, Rachels said that we live in a society where the rightsand interests of people are respected. We have to respect other people’s rights otherwise,we harm them.

What I Learned:

Here, I have learned about the two views or doctrines of egoism which werepsychological and ethical egoism. I have also found about the legend of Gyges which wasbasically about a powerful ring and a greedy shepherd. I also learned the actual differenceof selfishness and self-interest and found out about the three confusions we have withregards to the topics discussed in here.

Integrative Questions:

1.

What is the psychological egoism?2.

How is ethical egoism different from psychological egoism?3.

Why should we respect the interest and rights of other people?4.

What is the difference of self-interest and selfishness?5.

Why shouldn’t we hurt other people?

Review Questions

1.

Explain the legend of Gyges. What questions about morality are raised bythe story?

The legend of Gyges tells us about a shepherd who found a magical ring whichcould make its wearer invisible thus enabling him to do whatever he wantsunnoticed. He used the ring’s power to enter the royal palace, seduce the queenand kill the king to become the new king. The legend simply tells us about theshepherd’s hunger for power.The question which was raised in the legend is “how would a so-called virtuousman behave?” The said question was followed by if that so-called virtuous manbehaved no better than a rogue then they would be doing the same which is totry and gain more power and wealth. This means that virtuous man or rogue,they would both end up doing the same bad things because after all, both do notsee any point on being “moral” since it is not an advantage to them. Like Rachelssaid, “Moreover, why shouldn’t he? Once he is freed from the fear of reprisal,why shouldn’t a man simply do what he pleases, or what he thinks is best forhimself? What reason is there for him to continue being “moral” when it is clearlynot to his own advantage to do so?” Thus, both men (virtuous and rogue) woulddo what they would think is best for them.