Selfishness, the right way

by Tibor R. Machan

Yuma Sun

10/09/04

The most prestigious of contemporary moral philosophers favor the morality of fairness and impartiality. By this they tend to mean we all ought to think first of everyone's welfare across the globe as we decide how we are going to conduct ourselves. Although they often implore us to fashion public policies by this standard, in fact they intend this to be something we ought to do in our most private decisions as well. ... This is quite a preposterous demand, comparable to the Christian ethics that demand we imitate Christ as we live our lives. But at least the Christians tend to be willing to allow for our imperfections -- Roman Catholics didn't invent confession for nothing. What Unger & Co. -- and in his ethics Unger is joined by many others, including the famous Princeton philosopher and animal liberation advocate Peter Singer -- want from us is total altruism, living entirely for others...

http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_13632.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp