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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Ethical Egoism and Ethical Altruism are two other good places to start when it comes to moral frameworks. I have personally used the two of these many times in multiple cases for multiple resolutions and argued the both with astounding success. 

Ethical Egoism is the belief that agents ought to do what is in their own best interests. Essentially, it holds that ones obligations are first to himself. Egoism, however, does not necessitate a position that one should be selfish. There is a fundamental difference between Egoism and Selfishness. In a world where we are selfish, we only seek to benefit ourselves, sometimes to the point where we are so entrenched in self interest that we become blind to the rest of the world, and are clouded by lust, or self appeasement. Egoism, on the other hand, says that agents first must be in the interest of themselves, because it is their duty to fulfill their own needs and to first look to their own well-being. In a way, we are all egoist. We all eat food, and perform other actions which our bodies and minds require to survive. Egoism states that we can do the bidding of others, but only after we half self-fulfillment and satisfaction. Upon gaining such, we can look to the wellbeing of others.

Ethical Altruism, however, is precisely the opposite. It states that agents should maximize the interest of others in order to achieve happiness, because it is morally right to do so. It places an emphasis on our humanly nature which subjects us to being so interdependent on society, claiming that we function best when we are in essence one with our environment, and others interests should become our interests.

Both of these are suitable criteria for foreign policy cases. Subjects such as Free Trade and Protectionism, American Exceptionalism, and other topics geared toward what the state ought to do in order to maximize stability or happiness on either a global or societal level.

Evidence can be found easily through the Free Online Encyclopedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and other philosophical sources. Cards and Evidence to come soon.

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