A very famous philosopher named Immanuel Kant flipped traditional ethicson its head when he suggested that the commitment to moral goodness is onlytruly noble and “pure” when it is fully detached from any reward, from anyhappiness, from any other purpose whatsoever. Kant was worried about the problem of ulterior motives that, he thought,could water down the noble purpose of the truly good choice.  His separation of goodness from humanhappiness has led to what is now the most widespread ethical theory in theWest, namely the opposition of egoism vs. altruism.  Egoism is thought to be acting for the ego,the self, the “I,” while altruism is thought to be acting for the other.  Kant’s philosophy pits these two motivationsfor action against one another fundamentally, so that on Kant’s account, onecould not act both for the other and for the self.  Hence, any action done for one’s own sakeimmediately becomes morally problematic, becomes selfish, because it seems todeprive the other of your duty.

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