Some few years ago, the United States was dumbfounded by a report that came from New York whereby a young lady known as Kitty Genovese was inhumanly assassinated in her neighbourhood. The incident took place late in the night with the victim being stubbed several times in three different attacks. During that time, approximately 38 respectable and law abiding citizens from the neighbourhood were either listening or had a chance to watch the entire occurrence without taking any action. The assailant took his time to stabbed and beat her ruthlessly leaving her behind and later came back to stub her until she succumbed to injuries. A woman aged 70 years turned out to be the only courageous individual who called the cops who arrived some minutes later only to find Genovese dead.
In the entire incidence, only one woman showed up to testify some moments before the arrival of the ambulance. Residents from the area later gathered up in the scene and after questioning some claimed to have no idea of what was taking place while others said they were tired. Since then, the event has raised various concerns with regards to moral responsibilities that people living in the same locality might have. Ethical egoism refers to the normative moral position that decent agents are supposed to do as per their individual self-interest. The definition tends to differ with psychological egoism that claims people are supposed to act as per their self-interest. In other words, ethical egoism revolves around how people are supposed to behave in terms of moral obligations that seek personal self-interest as well as the wrongness or righteousness of a person’s conduct that solely depends on a person’s self-centredness.
Being ethical egoists, the people living within the neighbourhood displayed the features of serving their interest since there is no way one would leave an individual to be killed simply because they were tired. In the plight of Genovese, the neighbours had no option but to serve their own activities by assuming that someone was in danger in the same locality since their interest were more important compared to the person seeking their help. The neighbourhood happens to be more interested in achieving the personal interests without considering the wrong acts that were being conducted since they were fulfilling their obligations in a selfish manner.
Every individual can be defined as an egoist since everyone strives to do anything that brings about self-satisfaction. In this case, the people living around the area where the incident took place displayed egoistic characteristics since they carried on with their activities unbothered of the welfare of their neighbour Kitty. Similarly, the person who killed the lady also did according to his desire despite the underlying dangers. For instance, the individual did not care about the police or even the neighbours who could possibly show up while he was killing the lady. Naturally, human beings are prompted by selfishness while trying to do good deeds.
In conclusion, whenever a psychological egoists change their interpretation of self-interests, they tend to include motivations that can be defined as subconscious. This happens when the elderly woman together volunteers to report the matter to the police who in turn help in removing the body from the crime scene. In some occasions, people tend to be deceived by their instincts thus hindering the motivation but soon as they manages to overcome the self-dishonesty, they look deeper into their motivation schemes which in turn brings about essential selfishness.
