Contemporary Moral Problems (Chapter 1)

CONTEMPORARY MORALPROBLEMS

James E. White

Cristine Camille Valenzona

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Philippines License.

TITLE:

Contemporary Moral Problems: Egoism and Moral Scepticism (Chapter 1)

AMAZON LINK:

http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Moral-Problems-James-White/dp/0534584306

QUOTATION:

“But why shouldn’t I do actions that will harm other?”

LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:

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I want to have deep knowledge what is egoism all about.

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I want to learn the different views to attack the conventional morality.

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I want to know how I can defend morality in terms of egoism.

REVIEW:

In this section I become familiar to the legend of Gyges and become interested on what happened.Based on the book, Contemporary Moral Problems, discussed by Rachels, in the legend of Gyges, it statesthat there is a shepherd where in he found a magic ring in a fissure opened through an earthquake. Therings when wear will give you invisibility power and enable anyone who wear it go anywhere and doanything undetected by anyone. Gyges, shepherd who found out the ring, used the power to enter theRoyal Palace where he seduced the Queen, murdered the King and seized the throne.I just become confused why there are people who tried to do things like these. I think it is immoral inmy personal view because to gain the power and throne he need to do bad things which is really aneglected behavior in my personal assumptions because I believe things can become yours in a good way.I cannot blame that shepherd, assuming the present King is really an abusive King, because in thisinstance he thinks it can be a revenge and thinks that it is still good to have the power because he canrelate the state of other shepherd so he have this notion in mind that it is really better that he will rulethe land because he knows what the people lower social level experiences in the power of other.In this section there are many points that Rachels discussed such as the difference of ethical egoismand psychological egoism, the argument with the psychological egoism, the three common place of confusion in the psychological egoism and the argument that ethical egoism is inconsistent.I really appreciate how Rachels discuss each point to understand how really people can understandthe egoism and how can people will give their reaction on their views if it is either moral or immoral.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED:

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Egoism exists in the earlier era.

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People tend to care even to people they don’t know.

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The difference between the ethical egoism and psychological egoism.

INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:

1.

Who is Gyges?

2.

What are the sceptical views of egoism?3.

What are the different arguments on psychological egoism?4.

What are the commonplaces of confusion in psychological egoism?5.

Why Smith derives satisfaction from helping his friend?

REVIEW QUESTIONS:1.

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

In the legend of Gyges, it states that there is a shepherd where in he found a magic ring in a fissureopened through an earthquake. The ring when wear will give you invisibility power and enable anyonewho wear it go anywhere and do anything undetected by anyone. Gyges, shepherd who found out thering, used the power to enter the Royal Palace where he seduced the Queen, murdered the King andseized the throne.The questions raised about morality in the story are to determine the two different rings given to aman of virtue and given to a rogue. Why shouldn’t a man simply do what he pleases, or what he think isbest for himself? What reason is there for him to continue being moral when it is clearly not to his ownadvantage to do so?

2.

Distinguish between psychological and ethical egoism.

Psychological egoism is the view that all men are selfish in everything that they do, that is, that theonly motive from which anyone ever acts is self-interest. Ethical egoism is a normative view about howmen ought to act.

3.

Rachels discusses two arguments for psychological egoism. What are these arguments, and how doeshe reply to them?

The first argument about psychological egoism is “If we describe one person’s action as selfish, andanother person’s action, we are overlooking the crucial fact that in both cases, assuming that the action isdone voluntarily, the agent is merely doing what he most wants to do.”The second argument about psychological egoism is “since so-called unselfish actions always producea sense of self-satisfaction in the agent, and since this sense of satisfaction is a pleasant state of consciousness, it follows that the point of the action is really to achieve a pleasant state of consciousness,rather than to bring about any good for others.

4.

What three commonplace confusions does Rachels detect in the thesis of the psychological egoism?

The three commonplace confusions detects by Rachels are the confusion of selfishness with self-interest, assumption that every action is done either from self-interest or from other regarding motivesand assumption that a concern for one’s welfare is incompatible with any genuine concern for the welfareof others.