The Logical Contradictions of Ethical Egoism
..., she states that individuals have been taught that morality is a choice between ones life belonging to god or ones life being at the complete disposal of one's neighbors. No one, she argues, has every presented or encouraged the idea that your life belongs to you and that morality is dependent upon the reasoning that "Man's Life" is a standard of worth. "Man's life is that standard of morality, but your own life is its purpose. If existence on earth is your goal, you must choose your actions and values by the standard of that which is proper to man--for the purpose of preserving, fulfilling and enjoying the irreplaceable values which is your life" (Rand, 74). Rand argues that because our common conception of morality is one of self-renunciation, that the first value an individual sacrifices is morality itself. Adopting ethical egoism then, allows Individuals to realize that Man's Life Is the standard of morality but an individual's existence is moralities purpose. I, however, would argue that ethical egoism is not a valid moral theory on the grounds that it turns morality into nothing more than enlightened self-interest and fails to solve the issue of conflicting human interests. Take the example of any sports competition. Athlete A and Athlete B are both competitors at the 2008 olympics and while it is in the interest of both competitors to win the gold medal for swimming, we all know that there is only one first place spot. This means that it is in the interest of Athlete A to win but against the interest of Athlete A for Athlete B to win. The same issue arises when looking at the situation from Athlete B's point of view. It is in the interest of Athlete B to win but against the interest of Athlete B for Athlete A to win. Furthermore it follows that Athlete A is obligated to do everything he or she can to win, meaning somehow eliminating Athlete B. If Athlete A does not, then he or she has not acted completely in his or her self-interest. Likewise Athlete B, knowing full well that Athlete A would benefit greatly from his or her elimination, is obligated to do all they can in order to ruin Athlete B's plans. If Athlete A does not then he or she is also is not acting solely in their self-interest. While the situation in this example seems fairly trivial, it reveals that if the objectives of morality were to cater only to self-interest, then there would be no moral way to solve conflicts of self-interest. I believe that morality should provide solutions to conflicting self-interests in such a manner that allows all individuals involved to live cooperatively and some what in union. Ethical Egoism does not allow for this. An advocate of ethical egosim may attempt to argue that they see morality is a completely different light. An ethical egoist may consider life a continuous flow of one conflic...