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Psychological Egoism (Philosophy Paper)
Psychological egoism is the view that people are always selfish. When was the last time you did a good deed? Did you do it for its own sake, or for your own? The egoist says that all of us are necessarily self-regarding. I shall argue that this view is incorrect.
First we should ask, what kind of claim is this? Is it an a priori claim, or a generalization from experience? If it were the latter, we could never conclusively prove it: we could never show that necessarily all actions are selfish. So it must be a priori. But no a priori claim could be substantive: a priori truths are all analytic (that is, the predicate is contained in the subject). So if this claim were analytic, it would become trivial. (It is worth noting that Kripke’s claim that there are a posteriori necessary truths does not show that a priori truths are not analytic.)
The situation is paralleled by pseudo-sciences such as Freudian psychoanalysis. As Karl Popper has argued, any theory can be maintained so long as it is drained of empirical content. Like psychoanalysis, psychological egoism makes no genuine claims and can never be refuted. But it purchases certainty at the price of becoming vacuous. I shall have more to say on this below.
The simplest way to see the egoist’s mistake is to distinguish between the side-effects of an action and the reason for which it was done. Suppose we grant that in doing a good deed, we usually get a pleasant feeling (th...
Elizabeth Cady Stanton married an abolitionist and gave birth to seven children. Shortly after she married, Elizabeth and her husband attended a national anti-slavery conference in Europe. Elizabeth was outraged after her arrival to learn that she and the other women were not allowed to sit with the men and she vowed to do something about it. Several years later she did. Her work in the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls was just the beginning.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton who is one of the famous women in the movement was born in 1815 in Johnstown, New York. She received her formal education in her college and an informal legal education by her father. On her honeymoon in London, she and Lucretia Mott were angry at the exclusion of the woman. And then they decided to call a woman’s right convention. And for the next 50 years, she played a leadership in Suffrage movement, which is getting the movement to get the right to vote. She wrote “The Declaration of Sentiments.” It was calling for changes in law and society like educational, legal, political, social and economic. She elevated women's status, and demanded the right to vote. In 1851, she met Susan B. Anthony. She is also the woman who was active for a woman right to vote. They were fantastically influential in the 19th Amendment.
Elizabeth Stanton was born on the 12th of November 1815, in Johnstown New York. She was fortunate enough to enjoy a privileged life and grew up among the wealthy. The daughter of Daniel Cady, a prominent judge and Margaret Livingstone, she was the eighth of eleven children. Stanton received the best education available at the time for a young woman, attending Johnstown Academy for girls, where she studied Latin, Greek, mathematics, religion, science, French, and writing until the age of 16. After finishing her degree, Stanton married abolitionist Henry Stanton and gave birth to 7 children between 1842 and 1859. She died on October 26th, 1902.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York. She was born unto a conservative, Presbyterian family of considerable social standing. Her father, Judge Daniel Cady, was considered to be both a wealthy landowner and a prominent citizen with great political status (Banner 3). Stanton was one of seven children, 6 of which were girls, to be born to Daniel and Margaret. Growing up in the period that she did, Elizabeth was very fortunate to receive the outstanding education that she did since it was not as important to educate daughters as it was sons. She overcame that boundary when she began attending Johnstown Academy. She was the only girl in most of her classes, which was unheard of in those days. Even when females did attend schools, they were learning about “womanly” things, like how to run a household, not advanced math and science courses, like she was in. She then went on to further her education at a very prominent educational institution, Emma Willard’s Troy Seminary. After that she studied law with her father, who was a New York Supreme Court Judge. It is through this training that her awareness was raised about the discrimination that women were subjected to.
On November 12, 1815 Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown New York. Stanton had 6 siblings until her older brother died in 1826, Elizabeth was 11 at the time. Elizabeths father Daniel was so depressed from his sons death he took some of that anger out on Elizabeth. Elizabeth expressed
in 1815. In 1830 Elizabeth graduated from Jamestown Academy, and in 1833 she graduates from Troy Female Seminary. Elizabeth married abolitionist Henry Stanton in 1840, and had one son named Henry B. Stanton. In 1847, the Stantons moved from Boston to Seneca Falls. That is where she meets Susan B. Anthony, and her career as a slavery abolitionist and women's rights activist began.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born on November 12, 1815 in Johnstown, New York. She was the daughter of Margaret Livingston and Daniel Cady, who was a lawyer and congressman himself. She was a daughter of ten, but experienced hardships during her childhood by losing her siblings. Four out of her five brothers died during early stages of their lives, and the fifth brother died after graduating college at Union. The passing her brother, Eleazar, profoundly affected her father’s attitude due to the fact her family was centered on the men. As she tried to console her father he said how he wished she was a boy. This small statement from her father led to her dedication to changing society’s unreasonable treatment of women. She graduated from Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminar in 1832. While with her cousin, she met fugitive slaves that were staying in his house. Visiting her cousin Gerrit Smith, a former reformer, led her to take place in women’s rights, abolitionist, and temperance movements. This really sparked her resilient anti-slavery views.
One of the main leaders in the Women’s Rights movement was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was born in Jamestown, New York on November 12th, 1815 into a strict Presbyterian home. She attended Johnstown Academy, where only boys were admitted, but because of her sex she could not attend colleges that offered higher degrees, so she was accepted into Emma Willard’s academy in Troy, New York where she graduated in 1832. After graduating she studied law with her father, Judge Daniel Cady, but was not admitted to the bar, once again because of her sex.
If one wishes to be a psychological egoist, then one needs to explain why people do certain actions that appear to be genuine acts of altruism.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s early life allowed her to develop her individualism from the norm, and formulate her opinions on society. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born on November 12th, 1815 in Johnstown, New York. Her father, Daniel Cady was a successful lawyer and judge in their town, prominent amongst society (McGuire and Wheeler). When young, Cady Stanton was exposed to the world ...
• Once more, the ordinary science’ proves itself as the master of classification, inventing and defining the various categories of Egoism. Per example, psychological egoism, which defines doctrine that an individual is always motivated by self-interest, then rational egoism which unquestionably advocates acting in self-interest. Ethical egoism as diametrically opposite of ethical altruism which obliges a moral agent to assist the other first, even if sacrifices own interest. Also, ethical egoism differs from both rational and psychological egoism in ‘defending’ doctrine which considers all actions with contributive beneficial effects for an acting individual
Psychological egoism, a descriptive claim about human nature, states that humans by nature are motivated only by self-interest. To act in one's self-interest is to act mainly for one's own good and loving what is one's own (i.e. ego, body, family, house, belongings in general). It means to give one's own interests higher priority then others'. "It (psychological egoism) claims that we cannot do other than act from self-interest motivation, so that altruism-the theory that we can and should sometimes act in favor of others' interests-is simply invalid because it's impossible" (Pojman 85). According to psychological egoists, any act no matter how altruistic it might seem, is actually motivated by some selfish desire of the agent (i.e., desire for reward, avoidance of guilt, personal happiness).
Thus Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener tells the story of the proletariats’ dehumanizing conditions in capitalist society. Through the examples given through language, capitalist structure, and the totality of alienation and its place in capitalist society, Bartleby is a story of Wall Street, proletariat sacrifices, and about a man named Bartleby who through his refusal to sacrifice himself to the structure by remaining an automaton has superseded the structure and regained his identity as simply Bartleby.
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville captures the anti-capitalist view that is found in many of Karl Marx’s writings. This essay will discuss the theme of how capitalism in the mid-nineteenth century alienated and exploited the labor force by focusing on Bartleby as a scrivener in the law office. By using Lois Tyson’s book Critical Theory Today one will be able to understand the major tenants of Marxist theory and how it applies to Bartleby the Scrivener.
The ego lies within the conscious and unconscious realm and seeks to satisfy the id’s