Happy Birthday to Unselfish Abe! February 12, 2009
Posted by Nina Rosenstand in Current Events, Ethics, Nina Rosenstand's Posts.Tags: Abraham Lincoln and the pigs, psychological egoism
trackback
There is another important 200th birthday today which should not go unnoticed by us, so Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln! And all my former “Intro to Philosophy: Values” students, please remember the story of President Lincoln and the Pigs, The Moral of the Story Chapter 4: While Lincoln himself thought that saving the drowning pigs was a selfish deed (because otherwise he wouldn’t have had any peace of mind all day), which would make him a psychological egoist, we can show that in this case he was mistaken: A truly selfish person wouldn’t have cared about any drowning pigs. So not only was Abe honest, he was also a decent human being who was capable of being moved by the plight of others, including nonhuman animals.
One ought to note that Lincoln and Darwin were both born on the same day in 1809.
Good to see you again, Moriae! But I thought I implied just that: same day. Do you see a deeper significance?