Ethics and Morality In basic terms, ethical egoism can be regarded as an ethical position (normative) in which case an agent ought to undertake a course of action that maximizes his or her own self-interest. Thus in this case, the primary duty of the agent is to promote his or her own interests. In this text, I concern myself with ethical egoism. In so doing, I develop several arguments in favor of the theory. Further, I highlight several objections that could possibly be used to counter my arguments.

Ethical Egoism: Supporting Arguments

In the opinion of Arrington (1998), "ethical egoism is the claim that every person ought to act so as to promote her own self-interest." Several arguments can be used in support of ethical egoism. To begin with, it is important to note that each individual is more often than not perfectly aware of his or her needs and wants. It is such knowledge that places an individual in a better position to pursue and solve his or her needs more efficiently. On the other hand, we cannot claim to know or perfectly understand the needs of others. In that regard, we may not be uniquely placed to pursue or solve such needs. Thus in such a case, if we set out to solve the needs of others i.e. By being "our brother's keeper," chances of doing a poor job would be rather high. In such a case, it is only reasonable that we seek to solve our own problems which we are perfectly aware of. Further, it can also be argued that meddling in other people's affairs as we seek to help them out is an unnecessary intrusion into their privacy. Apart from intruding into their privacy, seeking to maximize the interests of others by making them objects of our concern is in a way degrading to the self-respect as well as dignity of the recipients of such concern. In addition, such concern also interferes with the independence of the recipients by making them reliant on others. Thus in the final analysis,...

Ethical altruism in itself is the view that there exists an obligation for individuals to benefit, serve or help others. In Rand's opinion, "if a man accepts the ethics of altruism, his first concern is not how to live his life, but how to sacrifice it" (Shafer-Landau, 2007). An individual's life is largely made up of various earned goods and projects undertaken. It is important to note that offering one's life as sacrifice in this case means abandoning such goods and projects. Similarly, asking an individual not to maximize his or her self-interest is the same as asking such an individual to give up or abandon his goods and projects. In basic terms, an individual has a single life. Hence based on the moral worth of such an individual and given the supreme importance of his or her life, an individual ought to maximize his or her self-interest and not that of others.
Lastly, it can be noted that ethical egoism in the opinion of Shafer-Landau (2007) "accepts common-sense morality and offers a surprising account of its basis." As human beings, we are expected to observe and live in accordance with certain rules. For instance, we are not expected to hurt other people, lie or break our promises. In this case, ethical egoism attempts to explain some of these obligations. For instance, should we habitually harm others; then, it is highly likely that those we harm will harm us back in…