Altruism: What Is Egoism?

Egoism is the theory that people are, and should be, selfish and base their actions on what is going to benefit them the most. Many philosophers including Thomas Hobbes, Macaulay, Herbert Spencer and Aristotle supported and wrote about this theory. There are variations of egoism. One of them is the descriptive which states that people are motivated by their own interests and desires, and no one is exempt from this. The normative variant proposes that people should be driven by their own desires and should not worry about others. "Egoism" derives from the word "ego" which is the Latin term for "I" in English. Many people confuse egoism with egotism, a psychological misjudgment of one's own importance, or of one's own actions. Altruism is the opposite of egoism and is said by egoists to be an illusion.
The descriptive variant, also known as "psychological egoism," views egoism as a factual description of human affairs. Psychological egoism describes human nature as being wholly self-centered and self-motivated. …show more content…
It states that people should put their own self-interest before others. Herbert Spencer said, "Ethics has to recognize the truth, recognized in unethical thought, that egoism comes before altruism. The acts required for continued self-preservation, including the enjoyments of benefits achieved by such arts, are the first requisites to universal welfare. Unless each duly cares for himself, his care for all others is ended in death, and if each thus dies there remain no others to be cared for." He was reflecting on Aristotle's theory of friendship in the Nichomachaean Ethics in which Aristotle argues that a person ought to focus on what is better for them before they can worry about how their actions may affect others. The general theory of normative egoism declares how people ought to behave, but does not attempt to describe human nature directly. It comes in two general forms: rational egoism and ethical