Review Questions:
1. The legend is about a shepherd named Gyges who found a ring that grants its owner invisibility.
He then went on to the palace; seduced the Queen, killed the King and took over the kingdom.
The questions raised are about how our morality is tested when we have power which no one is
able to resist. It is about taking advantage of the powers we have. As the famous english quote
goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
2. Psychological egoism is a view that the only motive anyone ever acts upon is self-interest, or
that they will get benefits from the actions that they do. Ethical Egoism on the other hand is a
normative view on how men should act. It simply means that they ought to do things in their
own interests.
3. Rachels discusses two arguments for psychological egoism. What are these arguments, and how
does he reply to them? The first argument goes as follows. If we describe one person’s action as
selfish, and another person’s action as unselfish, we are overlooking the crucial fact that in both
cases, assuming that the action is done voluntarily, the agent is merely doing what he most
wants to do.The second argument for psychological egoism is this. Since so-called unselfish
actions always produce a sense of self-satisfaction in the agent, and since this sense of
satisfaction is a pleasant state of consciousness, it follows that the point of the action is really to
achieve a pleasant state of consciousness, rather than to bring about any good for others.
Therefore, the action is “unselfish” only at a superficial level of analysis. Rachels says that these
arguments are not true. What if a man’s self-interest is to help others and that is what he does
then would we still consider him to be selfish.
4. The first is the confusion of selfishness with self-interest, the second is the assumption that
every action is done either from self-interest or from other regarding motives, and third is the
common but false assumption that a concern for one’s own welfare is incompatible with any
genuine concern for the welfare of others.
5. Ethical egoism is self-contradictory as shown in the example about B and K. He thinks though
that this argument fails to convict the egoist of self-contradiction.
6. “Why shouldn’t you do actions that will harm others? Because, doing those actions will harm
others”. According to Rachels, the welfare of human beings is something that most of us value
for its own sake, and not merely for the sake of something else.
Discussion Questions:
1. Yes, because he explains why shouldn’t we hurt others and why should we help others.
2. Yes, I do believe that people are willing to help out others even in the simplest of things. I
see people all the time giving a few coins to people trying to help out when they leave
parking areas even though they barely helped at all. Also people giving alms to the poor or
food and many other things.
3. I don’t think it is immoral but of course it depends on what that persons self-interest is.
Trying to put everybody else’s self-interest ahead of yours is not fully correct in my opinion
as it takes away from you your satisfaction.