Psychological Egoism: Taking Care of Number One

Sometimes, even in the middle of what seem to be acts of philanthropy or altruism, people can be motivated purely by self-interest rather than a feeling of wanting to help others. If someone obtains personal benefits from doing a good thing, either directly or indirectly, then their altruism is colored by their own self-interest, which may be the underlying reason for doing a good thing in the first place.

Many philosophers believe that the basic motivation for every human action is self-interest, regardless of what the outcome or outward purpose of the action seems to be. This viewpoint is called psychological egoism. It is a viewpoint that is non-normative - meaning that the idea applies only to how things are currently, not to how things ought to be. However, psychological egoism is related to several normative types of egoism, such as rational egoism and ethical egoism. Many examinations of psychological egoism focus on the sub-classification of psychological hedonism - the idea that the ultimate motive behind all voluntary actions of human beings is rooted in the desire to avoid pain or experience pleasure. Although the two are clearly related, they are not the same; actions can be motivated by self-interest whether or not they result in affecting feelings of pleasure or pain.

There is significant controversy surrounding the view of psychological egoism. People in agreement with the idea believe it is a true phenomenon because the nature of human psychology reveals its truth, and it is empirically supported that humans act in their own self-interest all the time. But critics of the philosophy say that someone satisfying their own desires is not the same as satisfying their own self-regarding types of desires. Although every human being sets out to seek his own satisfaction, doing so may sometimes be achieved only by ensuring the well-being of his friends or neighbors. For instance, when a person calls 911 because an accident has happened, the well-being of the person who called - his satisfaction for having made the call - depends on the well-being of the person who suffered the accident.

Such examples are not entirely inconsistent with the idea of psychological egoism, however. Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher who was a psychological egoist, explained that in cases such as these, impulses of compassion arise from projecting our own identity onto the other person. Some hypothetical examples he gives to illustrate this idea are the example of a person feeling compelled to save a drowning person, or someone feeling horrified by watching a fistfight and attempting to break it up. In such cases, a person unconsciously ignores threats to their own safety, because the suffering of another person feels threatening to our own happiness. Watching someone else suffer makes us vulnerable to our own misfortunes, so relieving that suffering can also relieve our own personal sentiments.

Because many human actions appear altruistic, such as helping someone gratuitously or sacrificing self, it may seem that psychological egoism is a falsehood. For example, it seems incorrect to assume that a mother who falls ill because of long hours tending her sick child does so because of self interests. However, psychological egoists say that helping other people in such a way is ultimately driven by some type of self-interest, be it the expectation of reciprocal actions, the desire for respect or admiration, or the expectation of being rewarded in an afterlife. Being helpful to others is simply instrumental for achieving goals that are, ultimately, selfish in nature.

Another criticism of psychological egoism involves criticism of the theory behind good feelings being universally responsible for altruism. For example, if a soldier sacrifices his life by jumping atop a grenade to save his platoon, there is no time left for the soldier to experience any positive feelings for having given his life. However, a psychological egoist would argue that the soldier is still able, albeit briefly, to experience good feelings by knowing that he is giving his life to ensure the survival of other soldiers, or that he is avoiding emotional pain he would feel if he did not do so. Although one's actions may not cause pleasure or avoid pain in a recognizable, long-term fashion, one's expectation of these outcomes is the main factor in them making the decision to perform an action.

The primary criticism of psychological egoism is that it uses circular logic - that if a person performs an action willingly, then he does it because it gives him pleasure; therefore people only perform actions that give them pleasure. So actions that seem altruistic must be egoistic in reality because they bring pleasure to the person performing them.