Hello. This week the topic is Egoism. Now I will not always do actual lessons on the philosophies of others with my own interpretations and twists, I will also be doing my own philosophy blips. Hmm…blips, that’s good. Maybe I should call this blog Philosophy Blips instead of Blurbs. What do you think? Let me know.
So Egoism. Egoism, like Utilitarianism is one of the founding philosophies the United States government and economics are based on. The first time the philosophy of Egoism came up it was in Plato’s Dialogues Called The Ring Of Gyges. The Ring of Gyges is a story Glaucon gives explaining that if any person found a ring that rendered one invisible and therefore was free from the consequences of his/her actions, this person would go about doing exactly how he/she pleases stealing, murdering, raping, etc. Socrates and Plato disagree and have hope for humanity. I also disagree. It is quite presumptuous to make generalized statements such as these. To know the character of another’s soul and the what goes on in another’s mind is impossible, especially for philosophers like Descartes who purported that all one can truly know is that one is alive and one is real in that one instance. Meaning you think and therefore you know you are alive and exist outside yourself but you cannot be sure that anyone or anything still exists. However, I am not here to talk about that today.
To begin with, I will explain the Ego. The Ego is a term first coined by Sigmund Freud along with the Id and the Super Ego. I am going to sum them up because that is all that is necessary in this context, if you would like to research them further, be my guest.
Id: Id is our base animalistic needs and desires. The pleasure center of our brains. Our brains tell us “I’m hungry, feed me now!” “I’m thirsty. Drink now!” “I am horny. Get sex Now!” That is all it does. We are born with it and it is useful in getting the things we need when we are babies. We cry to get what we want and are needs are more often than not met.
Then the Ego comes along: Egoism sounds like it is talking about the Id at first but read this carefully: The Ego develops when we realize as the song goes “you can’t always get what you want” While the Id dealt with irrationality in the sense that in reality we don’t get everything we want all the time but the Id wants to, the Ego says: “I know I can’t get everything I want, so I will just focus on what I need. There will be times when I cannot get what I need or want, so rather than trying to take it, I will be patient. If I try (and this is where Egoism comes in) to always get what I want (i.e. steal and rape) I will hurt my chances of continuing to get a lot of other things that I really need and want (i.e. freedom from imprisonment)
Then we have the Super Ego: The Super Ego is the mediator between the Id and the Ego. The SE is where moral and ethic codes develop. Need a better example? Remember Jiminy Cricket? Remember how he was supposed to be Pinocchio’s’ conscience? Well that is the Super Ego. It says I know you are hungry but dinner is in an hour stealing can get you in trouble, wait and you shall receive. The SE relieves the conflict in the mind.
So what does all of this have to do with Egoism? Well Egoism was founded by Thomas Hobbs. Egoism, in short, is the belief that everything and anything anyone and everyone ever does is only done out of self-interest. Egoism negates selflessness. No one ever does anything for nothing. This is how we get so many fun phrases like the ones I have been mentioning. Need a nice example? Well Egoism Retcons the Super Ego saying there is not right and wrong only them and me. For example: you decide not to rape someone, not because rape is terrible, awful, and unethical and immoral, but because you yourself do not want to be raped and you do not want to get in trouble. Want a positive example? You walk an old lady across the street not because she needs help and it is the right thing to do but because it makes you feel good about yourself.
Egoism is also the belief that we did not create laws to keep us, safe, we created laws so bad things do not happen to “me” (when I say me I don’t mean myself I mean the person making the law). They look at their world and say, “ok I don’t want to be killed. Even though I may want to kill other people, I do not want to be killed myself. Therefore, it should be a law that no one kills anyone that way I will not be killed. I’ll still want to kill others but I won’t so that others won’t kill me”
Do you see the thinking? It is a very pompous philosophy and there is no way to argue against it. It is infallible. Look, you say, no I hold the door for people to be nice, the Egoist asks you if you like being nice, you say yes, and they say you open the door because it makes you happy. Everybody wants to be a, and is their own, martyr according to Egoism. See? You cannot argue against it.
Me, personally I reject Egoism. I believe that people are good for the sake of being good. In addition, just because people feel good by being good, does not make that the primary reasoning behind that doing good things, it is more of an after affect.
Can I relate Egoism to music? Well…I can sure try:
How about people who write music: Egoist would say: you write music for yourself. It makes you happy. It may get you fame and fortune and your messages will get out to many people. You want people to follow your messages because you think you are right, not because you want to make things better, and even if you do want to make things better, ultimately, you want to make them better so they will be better for you”
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