Ethical Egoism Flaws

Ethical Egoism was attempted to be introduced as a functional ethical theory. Unfortunately, it was embedded with several flaws that deemed it unfit to provide a good guide to action for people. The theory’s premise contains several objections that cause a contradiction paradox. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to provide insight of how these contradictions prove the flaws of this theory.

To understand the objections towards the theory of Ethical Egoism, we first need to understand what the theory emphasizes. The person who created the theory of Ethical Egoism is Ayn Rand. This woman was of Russian Jew decent, hereby witnessed the cultural revolution in Russia. Rand witnessed millions starve to death under the Communist Government

Altruism translates to uphold the interest of others by sacrificing your own. This causes you to be a selfless person since you are no longer seeking your own best self-interest. According to Rand’s theory all Altruistic actions are immoral. Since Altruism was added to the equation of Ethical Egoism, the theory had to provide reasoning as to why Altruism may be permissible. The theory explains that perhaps one might be obligated to help others, but it must maximize our long term self-interest. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states “Each person needs the cooperation of others to obtain goods such as defense or friendship. If I act as if I give no weight to others, others will not cooperate with me” (2014). It is explained that the reason for cooperating is in order to gain something, and to pretend that one values the self-interest of others. It appears to be that the meaning of weight is allowing other people to think that they should act in the best self-interest of X person. Hence, X person’s egoism is returned as the other person may perceive their good deeds towards X person as Altruistic.

At this point we can clearly see that the theory fails to provide a guide to action. The theory provides the primary premise. It also attempts to justify the reasoning behind its actions, yet there is absolutely no consistency in what one should do. The lack of consistency is attributed to the plethora of contradictions that it contains. These contradictions are the base of why this theory has failed to be an ethical theory. Ethical egoism already has several objections that point out the flaws. However, the responses to these objections are what bring the contradictions to the