The textbook for this class, The Moral of the Story: an Introduction to Ethics by Nina Rosenstand, differentiates the terms egoism and egotism. An egotist thinks very highly of himself or herself. An egoist thinks and acts in a way that gives himself or herself an advantage over others. I understand egoism as the basic tendency of humans and other animals to protect their own life and resources first and foremost. If asked, I would tell someone that Chapter Four of our textbook discusses different philosophical schools of though about selfishness versus altruism in human nature. Because this is the first time that I have read about the study of egoism, it is taking me some time to process all of the theories. Because all of this terminology is new to me, it was easy to find …show more content…
Ethical egoism: the theory that proper moral conduct consists of acting selfishly.
3. Normative versus descriptive: Descriptive is describing something without judgment. Normative sets a standard as the norm, and things are judged as compared to this norm.
4. Cynicism - the origin of this word: In ancient Greece, ‘Cynics” or ‘doglike ones’ undermined conventions in order to make people think.
5. Falsification: A principle that a viable theory must allow for the possibility that it may be proven false.
6. Fallacy of the suppressed correlative: As it relates to selfishness, saying that all acts are selfish causes the word selfish to become meaningless. It would cause the term ‘unselfish’ to be nonexistent.
7. Selfish gene theory: The theory that explains unselfish behavior in animals and humans as a means to promote the survival of an individual’s genes.
8. Communitarianism: The social theory that individuals are healthiest within a community. This is where he/she finds his/her identity and shares responsibilities with other community members to care for one another.
9. Emotionalism: The theory of philosopher David Hume, that human morality is based on our