Egoism

What does it take to be a hero? In his classic “The Hobbit” (see my book review and podcast), author J.R.R. Tolkien gives us at least one criterion. Before Bilbo Baggins goes into the dragon’s den–a job for which the dwarves hired him–he asks if  anyone would volunteer to accompany him. After no one volunteers, we get the following description: “…dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don’t expect too much.” In other words, brave deeds aren’t enough. The brave deeds must be done with the intention to benefit others regardless of the benefit to oneself. Tolkien assumes, plausibly, that in order to be a hero one must be selfless.

 

A while back, I did a series of videos on Egoism, the view that we must or should act ultimately to benefit ourselves. If our actions also benefit others, so much the better, but that won’t or shouldn’t be why we do what we do. What struck me about Tolkien’s description is that it provides a kind of objection to Egoism. On Psychological Egoism, we can’t help but make choices that ultimately benefit ourselves. On Ethical Egoism, we are morally obligated to make choices with the ultimate intention of benefiting ourselves. On Rational Egoism, the only kind of choice that makes sense is one that benefits the person choosing. However, if heroism necessitates selflessness, this would mean that being a hero is respectively impossible, immoral, or irrational. While this isn’t necessarily impossible, it sure isn’t an attractive conclusion!

 

What can the Egoist do to ameliorate the damage? A popular response that I have seen is to point out that most often seeking your own benefit will benefit everyone around you. For example, in order to make money, inventors develop technology that we all enjoy. In the hero case, people might do at least partially self-sacrificing things in order to live in a society where people cooperate. So, for the most part, people will or should act like heroes.

 

The problem with this response is that it fails to address Tolkien’s criterion. Tolkien is not worried about brave actions alone, otherwise the Dwarves would surely be heroes. Instead, Tolkien thinks it is the ultimate goal of the action that counts, and Egoism is nothing if not a claim that the ultimate goal of all actions is or should be self-benefit. Thus, the Egoist must live bereft of heroes, or at the most deride heroism as foolish or wrong.