Justin Johnson is right up until that last assertion.
Yes, all human motivation is driven by
self-interest. Yes, this makes
altruism a
sham born out of
conditioning or
convenience. But what is very important to understand is that
selfishness does
not inherently lead to the harming of others. For me to truly act with my own
self-interests, I have to weigh in
all of the
consequences of my actions, not just in the short term. An example being, I could go over to my neighbor’s home and steal his TV because I want a new TV. But he would not particularly like that and will probably come after me using either
force or the threat of force. He would also call in the
police. No matter how powerful I am, I’m not likely to be able to continue my daily life unaffected with the police after me! Therefore, I won’t be stealing his TV any time soon.
The police can exist in the absence of
morals, if the existence of the police aids the self-interests of the people who elect to submit to such policing. Laws and morals are not
intrinsically linked.
All “nihilistic ethical egoism” advocates is weighing each situation independently based solely on the conditions presented by that situation. This is in stark contrast to an
ethical decision-making process driven by morals in which situations are generalized and lumped together to form specific “do’s” and “don’ts.” The problem with the latter is that it sometimes overrides
extenuating circumstances and over simplifies decision-making. Not to mention the psychological
neurosis’s that can develop when a person is forced to act in unnatural ways.