Why Everyone Acts Altruistically All the Time: What Parodying Psychological Egoism Can Teach Us

Philosophia 39 (3):563-570 (2011)
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Abstract

Psychological Altruism (PA) is the view that everyone, ultimately, acts altruistically all the time. I defend PA by showing strong prima facie support, and show how a reinterpretive strategy against supposed counterexamples is successful. I go on to show how PA can be argued for in ways which exactly mirror the arguments for an opposing view, Psychological Egoism. This shows that the case for PA is at least as plausible as PE. Since the case for PA is not plausible, neither is that for PE

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Mark Steen
Allegheny College

References found in this work

Leviathan.Thomas Hobbes - 1968 - Harmondsworth,: Penguin Books. Edited by C. B. Macpherson.
Egoism.Robert Shaver - 2021 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
An empirical basis for psychological egoism.Michael Anthony Slote - 1964 - Journal of Philosophy 61 (18):530-537.

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