Egoism

Egoism is the view that self-interest grounds moral action or that individuals ought to pursue their own interests. It includes descriptive claims about motivation and normative claims about what people should do.

Psychological egoism: The descriptive thesis that people ultimately act from self-interest. It claims self-interest motivates every action, rather than recommending self-interested conduct.
Utilitarianism: The ethical theory that evaluates actions by their consequences for overall well-being. It weighs everyone’s welfare, rather than giving each agent’s own interests priority.
Prisoner's dilemma: A game-theoretic model in which individually rational choices can produce a worse outcome for all participants. It illustrates how pursuing individual advantage can undermine shared welfare.
Thomas Hobbes: An English philosopher whose political theory explains social order through self-preservation, fear, and covenant. His account of motivation is often read as a form of psychological egoism.
Altruism debate: The dispute over whether people can act from genuinely other-regarding motives. Its outcome bears directly on psychological egoism’s claim that every motive is self-interested.
Ethical egoism: The normative theory that each person ought to pursue their own self-interest. It turns egoism into a moral prescription, unlike claims about how people actually behave.
Kantian ethics: An ethical approach that grounds morality in rational duties and respect for persons. It makes duty, not personal advantage, the basis of moral requirements.
Free-rider problem: A collective-action problem in which people benefit from a shared good without contributing to its provision. It shows why individually advantageous choices can threaten goods everyone depends on.
Bernard Mandeville: An Anglo-Dutch philosopher and satirist known for arguing that private vices can produce public benefits. His paradox links self-interested motives with socially useful outcomes.
Self-defeating theories: Theories whose adoption or pursuit undermines the goals they prescribe. Ethical egoism faces this challenge when cooperation serves long-term interests better than immediate advantage.

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