Thanks for your response. I'm not sure I see why one isn't a subcategory of the other. Isn't psychopathic behavior a subclass of unethical behavior?

What is your definition of "unethical behavior"?  If a patient is totally under the control of a disease mechanism, I would argue that the term "unethical behavior" could not be attributed to that individual because anything that was attributed to that individual as a person is wrongly attributed, because the action is not under the control of that individual's conscious will but rather due to the disease pathology affecting that individual.

Dennis

Dennis Mazur

Hi Kirk MacGregor,

In our field as a scientific researchers, I think it is better to replace the word egoism by "copyright(s)" of conducted researches.

Accept my respect and regards, Emad

My sincere greetings

Indeed, this kind of discrimination is unfair to the humanitarian effort that aspires to excellence.

The distinction must be based on the effort.

The scientific or humanistic civilization does not believe in color, race, religion, etc.

The excellence effort must be respected, such as the bee must respect the effort of whatever kind or her or the rose on which she stood.

Please let me know if the following references/sites are useful to those following this question and its set of answers:  Note that reference (5) makes the distinction between "ethical egoism" and "psychological egoism".  The question remains:  Does "psychological egoism" have to go far enough beyond self-survival to reach the threshold level of discrimination.  .

1.  Ethical Egoism - Ethics

ethicsintroduction.weebly.com/.../james_rachels_and_stuart_rachels_ethical_egoism.p...Cached

about the way things are; Ethical Egoism makes a claim about morality, or about the way things should be. Psychological Egoism is not a theory of ethics; rather, it is a theory of ..... races. All forms of discrimination work like this—anti-Semitism,.

2.  Ethical Egoism

www.faculty.umb.edu/lawrence_blum/courses/306_09/.../rachels_ethical.pdfCached

Similar

by J Rachels - ‎Cited by 1731 - ‎

Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, A Madison, WI New York. San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogotá Caracas Kuala Lumpur. Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City ...Missing: discrimination

3.  Ethical Egoism

hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_to...Sp_06/Rachels_Ch_6_Ethical_Egoism.htmCached

4.  Definition of Ethical Egoism: Each person ought to pursue his or her ... Ethical egoism rejects ordinary assumption that other people's interests count for their ...

https://people.umass.edu/klement/160/egoism.pdfCached

b)

5.  Psychological egoism is a psychological theory, about how ... c) Ethical egoism (Eeg) is a thesis in ethics about how people .... of discrimination b) Widely  ...

https://www3.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/2008-9/10100-spring/_.../23-egoism-2.pdf

But most views of ethics imply that, in at least some ... Psychological egoism is a universal claim: it is a claim about all human actions; the idea is that something ... 

Dennis

Dennis Mazur:

Because of its subjective nature ethical egoism could certainly endorse this type of behavior but again because of its subjective nature it does not necessarily do so.

Whether egoism recommends supporting a discriminatory view depends on the particular circumstances.

Imagine Malala who is an egoist and wants to earn as much as possible. In her company she get ahead faster if she visibly champions an anti-discrimination project. She could do this most effectively is she would actually be convinced that discrimination is wrong. Hence she could achieve her goal best by being against discrimination, so that is what her egoism recommends.

Now think of another case, Jamal, who is an egoist and works as a disciplinary officer at a university. Jamal has the best chances for a raise is he tracks his boss's racist views and her disdain for disabled people. Hence in this case egoism would recommend Jamal to discriminate against students of the uni based on their race and disabilities (as long as this does not cause him more harm than benefit, e.g. by getting him fired).

So, in itself egoism is compatible either with being for or against discrimination. Depending on the goals and values of the egoist it can even allow for being for or against discrimination in all cases consistently.

Ethical egoism may endorse discrimination as long as it promotes self-interests being the criterion of a moral act.

Dear Kirk McGregor.

You ask the following: Does ethical egoism endorse discrimination? 

Let me start by saying that the term "ethical egoism" is, say, an oxymoron. As you know, an oxymoron tries to relate, say, two entities whose relation does not make any sense. Cruel kindness is also an oxymoron. How can kindness -- we may ask -- be cruel?

When we speak of egoism we are thinking of self-centered behaviors, desires, interests, attitudes, and the like.  As such, these behaviors are unethical in their very nature because ethics, which deals with how things ought to be, not with the way things are, tell us, for example, to not treat others unfairly (see, for this respect, Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development), and not to turn away from someone in need (See, for this respect, Carol Gilligan's work on an ethic or care and responsibity). So, ethical ethical egoism is a blatant contradiction. How can we be ethical if we only think of our well-being, and pay no atteention to others' well-being? As I see it, moral/ethical people are against any discrimation, be it beased on gender, ethnicity, age, religious, political or sexual orientaion, social-economic status, and and the like. 

As Dennis and Emad suggest, the expression "ethical egoism", should be replaced by psychological egoism, Psychopaths' behaviors are typical examples of  egoistic and immoral/unthetical  behaviors, even though psychopaths do not seem them as such, because they have no ethic at all. No doubt, "ethical egoism" endorse discrimination whatever. As I see it, an action is moral/ethical if it passes, say, the "test" of reversibility ("Would I advocate the same conclusion or solution if, for example, in a conflict of welfares/interests, positions were reversed?") and the "test" of universability ("Did I reach a conclusion that would be acceptable for all at all times and places"?). Let me end by saying that no one is moral or ethical if does not espouse the golden rule, that is, do not do unto others what you would not like others do unto you.

I hope that I have got your question and that this helps,

Best regards,

Orlando

If we define ethical egoism as you do, viz., "promoting one's own interests over the interests of everyone else," I would never discuss this with anyone, let alone teach it to them.  It is not in my self-interest that you promote your own self-interest.  If we define ethical egoism as promoting my interests over everyone else, then you, and everyone else, are very unlikely to become ethical egoists.  No one will want to enslave themselves in the pursuit of my self-interest, and I certainly don't want them pursuing theirs.  Ethical egoism is thus completely unteachable and is a radically defective ethical theory, possibly conceptually incoherent.  If so, any apparent consequences of ethical egoism of concern can be safely ignored.

Ethics: Part of the philosophy that deals with the good and the foundation of its values.

This is one of the meanings that corresponds to the word "ethics". From this it is easily observed that there is no "ethical egoism" or "egoistic ethics".

As for selfishness, this is attributed to a person. There may be a selfish person hiding behind the banner of morality.

As for race, there are no moral concepts that support or base discrimination. As for "gender" (word often used nowadays, misused), you can not talk about moral discrimination since gender is used to differentiate things not people. When a man who has an identity crisis and thinks he is a woman or a cat or a dog or whatever, he commits a crime. How should he be tried?