Empino, Romir Gian O. ITETHICS Egoism and Moral Scepticism: James Rachels Review Questions: 1. Explain th e legend of Gyges. What questions about morality are rai sed by th e story? – The legend of Gyges is a story were in a shepherd had found a magic ring in a fissure opened by and earthquake. It will make the bearer invisible so, upon knowing its powers, he plan to pass a Royal Palace to seduce the queen in order for him to kill the king and seized the throne. The main question raised by this legend is it moral to use a extraordinary power forthe good of the greed? 2. Dist ingu ish between psych olog ical and eth ical egoi sm. – Psych olog ical egois m is th e belie f of me n that doing an acti on wi ll ben efithis interest while ethical egoism is also the same with psychological egoism but there is a breach on other people’s interests. 3. Rachels discusses two ar guments for psychological egoism. What are these arguments, and how does he reply to them? – The first argument is that the people can do things based on their own perspective and the second one: actions are being done for the sake ofothers. These arguments are all about actions of a person. He replies to these arguments through citing instances regarding on the arguments mentioned earlier. 4. What thr ee commonplace confusions does Rachels detect in the thesis ofpsychological egoism? – The three commonp lace confusions are a). selfishnes s with self- interests,b). assumpt ion that every action is done either from self-interestand c). the common but false assumptiuon that a concern for one’s own welfare is incompatible with others. 5. State the argumen t for sa ying that ethical eg oism is inconsisten t. Why doesn’t Rachels accept this argument? – “The refor e, the argument g oes, t here is no way to main tain the d octri ne of ethical egoism as a cons istent view…..”. Rachels we must put ourminds in a certain kind of world for the others wherein that world is a place for us to maximize our interests regardin g of other people’s interests. 6. Accord ing to R achels, why shouldn ’t we hur t others, and why should we help others? How can the egoist reply? – Acco rdin g to Ra chels , we s houl dn’t hurt othe rs bec ause they will be hu rtand we should help others because they will benefiting on our help. Because an egoist does not care on others value, they will react negative about it. Discussion Questions
