Editing Psychological egoism (section)

== Problem of apparent altruism ==
David Hume once wrote, "What interest can a fond mother have in view, who loses her health by assiduous attendance on her sick child, and afterwards languishes and dies of grief, when freed, by its death [the child's], from the slavery of that attendance?".<ref name="hume" />  It seems incorrect to describe such a mother's goal as self-interested.

Psychological egoists, however, respond that helping others in such ways is ultimately motivated by some form of self-interest, such as non-sensory satisfaction, the expectation of reciprocation, the desire to gain respect or reputation, or by the expectation of a reward in a putative afterlife. The helpful action is merely instrumental to these ultimately selfish goals.

In the ninth century, Mohammed Ibn Al-Jahm [[Barmakids|Al-Barmaki]] ({{lang|ar|محمد بن الجـَهْم البَرمَكي}}) has been quoted saying:

{{Blockquote|"No one deserves thanks from another about something he has done for him or goodness he has done, he is either willing to get a reward from God, therefore he wanted to serve himself, or he wanted to get a reward from people, therefore, he has done that to get profit for himself, or to be mentioned and praised by people, therefore, to it is also for himself, or due to his mercy and tenderheartedness, so he has simply done that goodness to pacify these feelings and treat himself."<ref>Ibn-Qutaiba Al-Dainoori, "Taweel Mukhtalaf AlHadith" (interpretation of controversial Hadith), http://www.almeshkat.net/books/open.php?cat=9&book=1150 (The book in Arabic). 
The quote in Arabic "لا يستحق أحد من أحد شكرا على شيء فعله به أو خير أسداه إليه لأنه لا يخلو أن يكون فعل ذلك طلبا للثواب من الله تعالى فإنما إلى نفسه قصد أو يكون فعله للمكافأة فإنه إلى الربح ذاهب أو يكون فعله للذكر والثناء ففي حظه سعي وفي حبله حطب أو فعله رحمة له ورقة وضعت في قلبه فإنما سكن بتلك العطية علته وداوى بها من دائه"</ref>}}

This sort of explanation appears to be close to the view of [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|La Rochefoucauld]]<ref>[[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|La Rochefoucauld, François de]] (1691). ''Moral Maxims and Reflections, in Four Parts''. London: Gillyflower, Sare, & Everingham</ref> (and perhaps Hobbes<ref>[[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes, Thomas]] (1650). ''Human Nature'', public domain</ref>).

According to psychological hedonism, the ultimate egoistic motive is to gain good feelings of pleasure and avoid bad feelings of pain.  Other, less restricted forms of psychological egoism may allow the ultimate goal of a person to include such things as avoiding punishments from oneself or others (such as guilt or shame) and attaining rewards (such as [[pride]], self-worth, power or reciprocal beneficial action).

Some psychologists explain [[empathy]] in terms of psychological hedonism. According to the "merge with others hypothesis", empathy increases the more an individual feels like they are one with another person, and decreases accordingly.<ref>Cialdini, Robert B., S. L. Brown, B. P. Lewis, C. Luce, & S. L. Neuberg (1997).</ref> Therefore, altruistic actions emanating from empathy, and empathy itself, are caused by making others' interests our own, and the satisfaction of their desires becomes our own, not just theirs. Both [[Cognitive psychology|cognitive]] studies and [[Neuropsychology|neuropsychological]] experiments have provided evidence for this theory: as humans increase our oneness with others, our empathy increases, and as empathy increases, so too does our inclination to act altruistically.<ref>Cialdini, Robert B., S. L. Brown, B. P. Lewis, C. Luce, & S. L. Neuberg (1997); Kaplan, J. T., & Iacoboni, M. (2006).</ref> Neuropsychological studies have linked [[mirror neuron]]s to humans experiencing empathy. Mirror neurons are activated both when a human (or animal) performs an action and when they observe another human (or animal) perform the same action. Researchers have found that the more these mirror neurons fire the more human subjects report empathy. From a neurological perspective, scientists argue that when a human empathizes with another, the brain operates as if the human is actually participating in the actions of the other person. Thus, when performing altruistic actions motivated by empathy, humans experience someone else's pleasure of being helped. Therefore, in performing acts of altruism, people act in their own self-interest even at a neurological level.