Worth of my Fist.

Tonight I will be starting an essay for my course Introduction to Ethics. I find that philosophical egoism is the silliest and most contradictory moral position I have ever studied. Essentially, it is the belief that only one's own interests and pleasures matter. Only one's own, no one else's. Superficially this makes sense. But consider the wording, as all philosophers do: ONLY. And herein lies the key. Both normative and descriptive psychological egoism are false because the belief that humans are ALWAYS selfish just isn't true, nor are humans ALWAYS altruistic. Self-interest will always be prevalent, and I'm glad, because otherwise I would starve myself to death, neglect my talents, and never maintain my bulletproof rock-hard shoulders. But helping out a crying kid? For sure. Listen with full attention to someone going through emotional trouble? I'll be there. Why take an extreme path?

Even worse, philosophical egoism is arbitrary. And an arbitrary position cannot be maintained by most rational people, if you consider the following example.

Imagine an occasion that I commit perjury against you in court for one million dollars. You get screwed over due to my perjury, and I walk out never having to work again. Who was "right" in this situation - me or you? Well, there is an answer - but it is certainly not going to come from egoism, because I did the right thing - for me - by committing perjury because my own interests have been advanced. Yet for you - it was totally the wrong thing because YOUR interests were shattered.

And that comes to an even bigger question: How can the worth of my fist be any more than that of a common thug's if all I do is serve my own selfish impulses?

Look, I know people get fed up of my obsession with virtue and warriors - but an ideal warrior fights with virtue. We have plenty of healthy self-interest - it is what keeps us strong, smart, and vital - but we also have a healthy amount of altruism, for this is the measure with which we gauge our higher capacities.

Break through the fog of lies created by egoists and emerge into the beautiful universe. A fist of virtue is enough to achieve this.