There is nothing ethical about egoism

I know virtually nothing.

JLNobody wrote:

I know virtually nothing.

Wow.

I always suspected you were the master.

When you know nothing, please let us know, so we can all bring flowers to your place at your feet.

Egoism or selfishness is inconsiderate of the being of others. It is not an applicable belief, because:

1) In claiming oneself as the only thing worthy of consideration,
one ignores the reality of other beings.

2) It is irrational to claim that one ought to be selfish as there
would be a conflict (people believing themselves to be more
worthy of consideration than another; who is right?)

3) Even if others agree that they ought to serve one's interest,
there is a problem with universals.



The basic assumptions of egoistic philosophical beliefs, are either/that:

i) Happiness will always = to justice or virtue

or/and

ii) People's pursuit of self-interest will not create conflicts/physical
force


Point (i) is not true, because virtuous or just actions will not always equal to happiness.

Point (ii) is not true, because selfish or self-interested actions do result in unjust or physical conflicts (e.g. a feudal landlord attacking another landlord for land), and the only way that a self-interested action would always result in sans-conflict, would be if one makes sympathy as one's interest, which would be contradictory to the assumption that one ought to be self serving.

By the way, imagine two men, both with equally large egos, but one sees through it; he is actually amused by the ways his ego presses him to do various dishonorable things. But he knows his ego is unreal. The other man performs the same dishonorable acts but thinks that the acts are expressive of his true self. For this man his ego is real. Indeed it IS him. So ego size is not the point. What matters is whether or not it is transparent or opaque for its host.

Ego means 'self' Your ego IS you, not a character trait.

had no ethical objection to drinking";

In the law's view (in most jurisdictions), you are reponsible for your actions if you are voluntarily drunk.

However, in the rare case you are involuntarily drunk, you may not be responsible for your actions. (ie in the rare case that someone pointed a gun to your head and told you to drink or something like that...btw, Spendius often does this to me when we go drinking at those dark inglish pubs--thus I am often not responsible for my actions)