GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

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Ernies
in other words, entails a subordination of the particular
impulses to the principle of cool Self-love.
Statement of Psychological Egoism. Butler's position
entails that some of our actions may be undertaken with
an object other than that of increasing our own happiness;
it entails, that is to say, a denial ofPsychological Hedonism* 1
Some impulses, such as the ttnpiilf^ to ring in the bath,
have no object at all; in the case of others, such as the
impulse to boast, the object of the impulse is the gratification
peculiar to itself. Such gratification may be inimical,
it may even be consciously inimical, to happiness.
Butler develops this point with special reference to the
ethical doctrines of the philosopher, Thomas Hobbes,
whose views are summarised in Chapter X. Ethically
Hobbes was what is known as an egoist. Egoism may be
defined as the view that all our actions have as their
recognized object die production of some change in the
state of the agent, and that all our sentiments resolve
themselves on analysis into a concern for the well-being
of the person feeling the sentiments. There is, in other
words, if the egoist is right, no such thing as a disinterested
action, or a disinterested feeling. The arguments by
which this view is supported are not in essence different
from those which I have briefly summarised in Chapter II 1
in defence of Hedonism, and which will be elaborated
later in greater detail in Chapter XI. Psychological
Hedonism is indeed, a special case of Psychological Egoism.
While Egoism maintains that all actions are designed to
produce some change in the state of the agent, Hedonism
asserts that all actions have as their object that particular
kind of change which consists in an increase of the agent's
pleasure. It is obvious that the change in a man's condition
which, if the egoist is right, a man's action is
cases out of a
designed to promote, will in ninety-nine
x For a definition of Psychological as opposed to Ethical Hedonism,
see Chapter XI, p. 597.
Sec Chapter II, pp. 46-48.