Philosophical Egoism in Eighteenth-Century Moral Thought and Its Relevance to Modern Psychology

Following a general consideration of the role of theory in the empirical sciences, Viktor Frankl's humanist—existentialist critique of Freud's pleasure principle is discussed in the context of philosophical disputes over the theory of “philosophical egoism.” Drawing on the work of the eighteenth-century English moral philosopher Bishop Butler, certain logical pitfalls in the concept of pleasure as a goal are explored, and it is suggested that the tendency of egoist theories of motivation to seem self-evidently true

can be shown to derive from a fallacy. It is argued that awareness of the philosophical traditions relevant to current disputes in metapsychology can enhance our awareness of our own theoretical assumptions and enrich the debate over their proper role.