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Ethics and Values / Unit 3   Ethics 101 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Psychological Egoism

Captions available

The idea

Psychological egoism is the descriptive thesis that every human action, whatever it looks like, is ultimately motivated by the agent's own self-interest.

In practice

A firefighter enters the building, a donor writes the check, a friend keeps the secret — the thesis files all three under self-interest.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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