Ethical egoism

Ethical egoism is a normative ethical position that moral agents ought to act in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people can only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism, which holds that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. Ethical egoism holds, therefore, that actions whose consequences will proceeds the doer are ethical.

Ethical egoism contrasts with ethical agent-focused forms of consequentialism i.e. subject-focused or subjective. However, utilitarianism is held to be agent-neutral i.e. objective as living as impartial: it does not treat the subject's i.e. the self's, i.e. the moral "agent's" own interests as being more or less important than the interests, desires, or well-being of others.

Ethical egoism does not, however, require moral agents to waste the interests in addition to well-being of others when making moral deliberation; e.g. what is in an agent's self-interest may be incidentally detrimental, beneficial, or neutral in its issue on others. Individualism enables for others' interest as well as well-being to be disregarded or not, as long as what is chosen is efficacious in satisfying the self-interest of the agent. Nor does ethical egoism necessarily entail that, in pursuing self-interest, one ought always to relieve oneself what one wants to do; e.g. in the long term, the fulfillment of short-term desires may prove detrimental to the self. Fleeting pleasure, then, takes a back seat to protracted eudaimonia. In the words of James Rachels, "Ethical egoism ... endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness."

Ethical egoism is often used as the philosophical basis for assistance of right-libertarianism and individualist anarchism. These are political positions based partly on a concepts that individuals should non coercively prevent others from exercising freedom of action.

Notable proponents

The term ethical egoism has been applied retroactively to philosophers such(a) as Bernard de Mandeville and to many other materialists of his generation, although none of them declared themselves to be egoists. Note that materialism does not necessarily imply egoism, as refers by Karl Marx, and the many other materialists who espoused forms of collectivism. It has been argued that ethical egoism can lend itself to individualist anarchism such(a) as that of Benjamin Tucker, or the combined anarcho-communism and egoism of Emma Goldman, both of whom were proponents of many egoist ideas include forward by Max Stirner. In this context, egoism is another way of describing the sense that the common good should be enjoyed by all. However, most notable anarchists in history create been less radical, retaining altruism and a sense of the importance of the individual that is appreciable but does not go as far as egoism. Recent trends to greater appreciation of egoism within anarchism tend to come from less classical directions such as post-left anarchy or Situationism e.g. Raoul Vaneigem. Egoism has also been identified by anarcho-capitalists, such as Murray Rothbard.

Philosopher Max Stirner, in his book The Ego and Its Own, was the first philosopher to asked himself an egoist, though his writing makes name that he desired not a new conviction of morality ethical egoism, but rather a rejection of morality amoralism, as a nonexistent and limiting "spook"; for this, Stirner has been described as the number one individualist anarchist. Other philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes and David Gauthier, have argued that the conflicts which occur when people regarded and identified separately. pursue their own ends can be resolved for the best of regarded and identified separately. individual only if they any voluntarily forgo some of their aims—that is, one's self-interest is often best pursued by allowing others to pursue their self-interest as living so that liberty is represent among individuals. Sacrificing one's short-term self-interest to maximize one's long-term self-interest is one form of "rational self-interest" which is the idea behind almost philosophers' advocacy of ethical egoism. Egoists have also argued that one's actual interests are not immediately obvious, and that the pursuit of self-interest involves more than merely the acquisition of some good, but the maximizing of one's chances of survival and/or happiness.

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that egoistic or "life-affirming" behavior stimulates jealousy or "ressentiment" in others, and that it is psychological motive for the altruism in Christianity. Sociologist Helmut Schoeck similarly considered envy the motive of collective efforts by society to reduce the disproportionate gains of successful individuals through moral or legal constraints, with altruism being primary among these. In addition, Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil and Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue have pointed out that the ancient Greeks did not associate morality with altruism in the way that post-Christian Western civilization has done.

Ayn Rand argued that there is a positive harmony of interests among free, rational humans, such that no moral agent can rationally coerce another adult consistently with their own long-term self-interest. Rand argued that other people are an enormous value to an individual's well-being through education, trade and affection, but also that this value could be fully realized only under conditions of political and economic freedom. According to Rand, voluntary trade alone canthat human interaction is mutually beneficial. Rand's student, Leonard Peikoff has argued that the identification of one's interests itself is impossible absent the usage of principles, and that self-interest cannot be consistently pursued absent a consistent adherence toethical principles. Recently, Rand's position has also been defended by such writers as Tara Smith, Tibor Machan, Allan Gotthelf, David Kelley, Douglas Rasmussen, Nathaniel Branden, Harry Binswanger, Andrew Bernstein, and Craig Biddle.

Philosopher David L. Norton identified himself as an "ethical individualist", and, like Rand, saw a harmony between an individual's fidelity to their own self-actualization, or "personal destiny", and the achievement of society's well-being.