It's All About Me. (And that's ok.) A Defense of Psychological Egoism

It's All About Me. (And that's ok.) A Defense of Psychological Egoism Introduction Long before I ventured into my first philosophy class, I often engaged in friendly, yet passionate debates with friends and colleagues, holding fast to my assertion that altruism simply does not exist. All actions, I argued, originate from some self-interest. Now, of course, I recognize this theory as psychological egoism. <Tab/>Perhaps, it could be argued, that my …

…v Sober, 212. vi "Maslow's hierarchy of needs," Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs vii Feinberg, Joel. "Chapter 1: Psychological Egoism." Moral Philosophy. Ed. George Sher. Belmont: Wadsworth Group, 2001, p. 7. viii Ibid, p. 10. ix Ibid, p. 9. x "Rationalization," AllPsych Online, Heffner Media Group, Inc, http://allpsych.com/dictionary/ xi Feinberg, p. 9. xii Bentham, Jeremy. "Chapter 43: Pleasure as the Good." Moral Philosophy. Ed. George Sher. Belmont: Wadsworth Group, 2001.