Changes

From Nordan Symposia
Jump to navigationJump to search
1,894 bytes added ,  14:43, 4 September 2010
Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_Century 1649] ==Definitions== *1: a concern for one's own advantage and well-...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Self_interest.jpg|right|frame]]

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_Century 1649]
==Definitions==
*1: a concern for one's own advantage and well-being <acted out of self–interest and fear>
*2: one's own interest or advantage <self–interest requires that we be generous in foreign aid>
==Description==
[[Psychological]] [[egoism]] is the view that [[humans]] are always [[motivated]] by '''self-interest''', even in what seem to be [[acts]] of [[altruism]]. It claims that, when people [[choose]] to help others, they do so [[ultimately]] because of the [[personal]] benefits that they themselves expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so. It is a non-[[normative]] view, since it only makes claims about how [[things]] are, not how they ought to be. It is, however, related to several other normative forms of egoism, such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_egoism ethical egoism] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_egoism rational egoism].

A specific form of psychological egoism is psychological [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism hedonism], the view that the [[ultimate]] [[motive]] for all [[voluntary]] [[human]] [[action]] is the [[desire]] to [[experience]] [[pleasure]] or to avoid [[pain]]. Many [[discussions]] of psychological egoism [[focus]] on this variety, but the two are not the same: one can hold that all [[actions]] are ultimately motivated by [[considerations]] of self-interest without [[thinking]] that all agents conceive of their self-interest in terms of [[feelings]] of [[pleasure]] and [[pain]].[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_egoism]
==External links==
* [http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/egoism.htm Egoism] in the ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/ Egoism] in the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''


[[Category: Psychology]]

Navigation menu