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    Psychological egoism, defended by Hobbes and Mandeville, ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→It is plausible that human motivation always includes an other-regarding component.

    Psychological egoism, defended by Hobbes and Mandeville, holds that all motivation reduces to self-interest, including apparent concern for others.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Introspection reveals that even 'altruistic' acts provide satisfaction, pleasure, or relief from guilt—all self-interested psychological states.
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    • 2.Evolution selects for organisms that maximize their own survival and reproduction; apparent altruism masks underlying self-benefiting strategies.
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    • 3.When we help others, we can always identify some benefit to ourselves—reputation, reciprocity, or emotional reward—making self-interest unfalsifiable.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Parents routinely sacrifice survival interests (sleep, resources, safety) for children's welfare in ways that cannot be explained by indirect self-benefit.
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    • 2.If any psychological satisfaction from helping counts as 'self-interest,' the theory becomes tautological and empirically untestable by definition.
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    • 3.Documented cases of strangers risking death for unknown others (rescuing during disasters) lack plausible self-interested explanations or rewards.
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    Virtue Ethics1 linkedMoral Responsibility1 linked

    Related

    Documented cases of strangers risking death for unknown others (rescuing during ...Evolution selects for organisms that maximize their own survival and reproductio...If any psychological satisfaction from helping counts as 'self-interest,' the th...Introspection reveals that even 'altruistic' acts provide satisfaction, pleasure...
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    It is plausible that human motivation always includes an other-regarding compone...Parents routinely sacrifice survival interests (sleep, resources, safety) for ch...When we help others, we can always identify some benefit to ourselves—reputation...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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