Arguments Against Psychological Egoism

Psychological Egoism is the idea that only self-interest motivates human action. For psychological egoism, we want to make ourselves as well off as we can be. According to this theory, there is only one thing that motivates humans and that is self-interest. To agree with psychological egoism, means you cannot be altruistic, the idea that humans can have an ulterior motive, as it is just simply human nature. The Expected Benefit argument claims that only self-interest motivates human action. I believe that Psychological Egoism, is a true theory that holds strong arguments as to why, all human actions are motivated by self-interest, because whatever argument is made against this theory can always be refuted back to the idea that any action that
This premise is true for someone who agrees with psychological egoism, because if you want to be better off and if you want to be happier than you are at your current state, then you are aiming to promote self-interest. Through aiming to promote self-interest, you will complete actions that will make you better off. It is very unlikely to hear of a case where people do not want to be better off. Therefore, coming to the conclusion that, whenever you do something, you are aiming to promote self-interest. Whether we realize it or not, almost all of our actions aim to promote self-interest. An example of expecting to be better off would be when someone decides to study for a test. They expect that if they study for this test that they will get a good grade and then be better off having a good mark, rather than a bad one. This is promoting self-interest because their motivation is to get a good grade on the test for their own self-benefit. If you do not study for the test, and you get a bad grade, you will not be better off, because an “A” is always better than getting and “F”. Since humans want to look out for their self-interest, this person will choose to study to get the better
One could argue against premise one that states, "Whenever you do something you expect to be better off as a result“ (96, Shafer-Landau). An argument against this would be that, whenever you do something you are not always expecting to be better off. For instance, you could choose to do something for someone, such as help him or her with his or her homework, but since it is not your homework, you are not expecting to be better off, just simply helping the person. The problem with this statement is to question, whether or not the person helping actually was not aiming to be better off. I believe that if a person takes the time to complete any type of action, they are doing it because it is in their best self-interest. If someone takes the time to help someone with their homework, they will feel accomplished and feel better after they helped that person do their homework, or else they would not have agreed to help. There would be no point to help, with out having any motivations of self-benefit, such as being more accomplished afterwards. Thus, coming back to the idea that wanting to get something out of helping someone else, is ultimately self-interest. A person against psychological egoism may question, how could an action such as drinking a glass of water, be done out of self-interest? I would argue in agreement with psychological egoism that you decide to drink a glass