Ethical egoism is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is 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 contrasts with ethical altruism, which holds that moral agents have an obligation to help others. Egoism and altruism both contrast with ethical utilitarianism, which holds that a moral agent should treat one's self (also known as the subject) with no higher regard than one has for others (as egoism does, by elevating self-interests and "the self" to a status not granted to others), but that one also should not (as altruism does) sacrifice one's own interests to help others' interests, so long as one's own interests (i.e. one's own desires or well-being) are substantially equivalent to the others' interests and well-being. Egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism are all forms of consequentialism, but egoism and altruism contrast with utilitarianism, in that egoism and altruism are both agent-focused forms of consequentialism (i.e. subject-focused or subjective), but utilitarianism is called agent-neutral (i.e. objective and impartial) as 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. Although the utilitarian concept of enlightened self-interest could be considered an agent-focused form of the philosophy. Ethical egoism does not, however, require moral agents to harm the interests and 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 effect on others. Individualism allows for others' interest and 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 do 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 support of right-libertarianism and individualist anarchism. These are political positions based partly on a belief that individuals should not coercively prevent others from exercising freedom of action. Forms of ethical egoism Ethical egoism can be broadly divided into three categories: individual, personal, and universal. An individual ethical egoist would hold that all people should do whatever benefits them; a personal ethical egoist would hold that he or she should act in his or her self-interest, but would make no claims about what anyone else ought to do; a universal ethical egoist would argue that everyone should act in ways that are in their self-interest. History Ethical egoism, as a category of moral philosophies, was introduced by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick in his The Methods of Ethics, written in 1874. Sidgwick compared egoism to the philosophy of utilitarianism, writing that whereas utilitarianism sought to maximize overall pleasure, egoism focused only on maximizing individual pleasure. Since the introduction of the term, ethical egoism has been retroactively applied to philosophers before Sidgwick. The philosophy of Yang Zhu (4th century BCE), Yangism, is considered to be egoist. Yangism views wei wo, or "everything for myself", as the only virtue necessary for self-cultivation. Although ancient Greek philosophers believed in individual virtue ethics, philosophers like "Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics not accept the formal principle that whatever the good is, we should seek onThis is a synthesized speech reading of the Wikipedia article "Ethical egoism" and is intended primarily for blind and visually impaired individuals who can not view Wikipedia. This video can also be used for mobile users who wish to listen to Wikipedia articles on the go, or by those who wish to learn a second language by reading the captions in that language while listening in English. Original article available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_egoism All text from Wikipedia is licensed under CC-BY-SA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content "You are free ... to make commercial use of the work": http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Text-to-speech synthesized from FestVox, which permits commercial use: "no restrictions on its use (commercial or otherwise)" http://festvox.org/festival/downloads.html Note: all these licenses permit commercial use, and therefore we are permitted to monetize videos derived from these contents.

• published: 25 Aug 2013
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