Ressource pédagogique : Egoism vs. Altruism: Deconstructing the Debate

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Psychological egoism maintains that all human motivation is ultimately selfish. Though people often desire to help others, egoists maintain that these desires are always instrumental, caused or sustained by the belief that helping will lead to the satisfaction of some self-interested desire. By contrast, psychological altruism maintains that some of our ultimate or non-instrumental desires are not self-interested; their object is the well-being of others. Philosophers from Hobbes to the present have worried that if egoism is true, moral behavior may be threatened, and drastic steps have been proposed to counter this threat. Recently both psychologists and evolutionary biologists lavished a great deal of attention on the egoism vs. altruism debate. However, neither the psychologists nor the biologists have taken adequate account of the range of cognitive states and processes invoked in contemporary cognitive science. When these options are made explicit, they undermine the best psychological and evolutionary arguments for altruism. They also undermine most of the reasons philosophers have offered for thinking that psychological egoism would be morally problematic.

"Domaine(s)" et indice(s) Dewey

• Philosophie et psychologie (100)
• Processus mentaux conscients, intelligence (153)
• Éthique (170)
• Maladies du système nerveux. Troubles psychiques (616.8)

Thème(s)