EGOISM

1
EGOISM
Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500
2
The Ring of Gyges
Plato (ca. 428-348 BCE)
3
JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE

• Glaucons challenge to Socrates is to show that
  justice is better than injustice, or to prove why
  it is better to be just than unjust.
• Glaucon says that he will praise the unjust life
  and show what the nature and origin of justice
  is.
• Glaucon thinks that it is natural for people to
  enjoy doing wrong and natural for them to detest
  being wronged.

4
DOING WRONG AND BEING WRONGED I

• Glaucon thinks that the best thing for people is
  to do wrong without being punished, while the
  worst thing is to be wronged and have no means of
  getting revenge for the wrong committed against
  you.
• Because the badness of being wronged is worse or
  greater in negative value than the joy or
  positive value of inflicting wrong, people have
  gotten together and come to an agreement that
  protects them from wronging one another.

5
DOING WRONG AND BEING WRONGED II

• According to Glaucon, by agreeing not to wrong
  one another, a societys people protect
  themselves from being wronged by one another.
• Glaucon says that this making of laws for the
  protection of people from one another is the
  origin of justice.
• For Glaucon, justice is simply a mean between the
  extremes of doing wrong and being wronged.

6
POWER AND WRONGING I

• Glaucon thinks that the person who could get away
  with wrongdoing, who had the power to do wrong
  without being punished, would do it, since he
  thinks that it is natural to enjoy doing wrong.
• Glaucon says that a person who had the power to
  do wrong without paying the penalty would not
  make a pact with anyone not to injure anyone in
  order not to be injured by anyone else.
• And this is because, if he knew that he could
  wrong another without penalty, then, as the
  desire to wrong another is naturally good, he
  would not agree not to do what he wants to do.

7
POWER AND WRONGING II

• According to Glaucon, a person who could get away
  with it would be mad to agree to justice, or
  would be mad to agree not to do wrong to others
  in exchange for others not doing wrong to him.
• Glaucon says Even those who practice justice do
  so against their will, because they lack the
  power to do wrong.
• If they but had the power to do wrong then they
  would do wrong since every organism by nature
  pursues the desire for undue gain as a good.
  And it is only because a person lacks the power
  to do wrong without being punished that the law
  forcibly sidetracks him to honor equality.

8
SELFISHNESS I

• Glaucon thinks that people are naturally selfish,
  and any person would do what he could to satisfy
  himself if only he could get away with it.
• Glaucon says that, if both a just and an unjust
  man had access to a ring that would make them
  invisible, so that they could get away with doing
  whatever they wanted, then that is what each
  would do, the just as much as the unjust man.
• Glaucon No one would be so incorruptible that
  he would stay on the path of justice.

9
SELFISHNESS II

• For Glaucon, people are basically selfish and
  would do whatever they could get away with if
  that were possible.
• And this, he thinks, is proof that no one is
  willingly just, but is only just because he is
  compelled to be just.
• Glaucon says that Every man believes that
  injustice is much more profitable to himself than
  justice, and he thinks that people are such that
  they would think anyone who had the power to do
  what he wanted who did not, but instead was just,
  was foolish.

10
Of the State of Men without Civil Society
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
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MAN AND SOCIETY I

• Hobbes notes that some writers, such as
  Aristotle, have thought that man is a social
  animal, or is a being that is born fit for
  society.
• People who think this think that the only thing
  necessary for men to get along in society is for
  them to get together and agree on certain
  covenants and conditions that are called laws.
• This, Hobbes thinks, is almost certainly false as
  a matter of how societies have originated, and he
  thinks that people who think this have paid too
  little attention to human nature.

12
MAN AND SOCIETY II

• Hobbes does not think that people come together
  because they are born to be social creatures, but
  thinks that they come together by accident.
• Man does not have societies because he is a
  social creature, and so it is false that
  societies must naturally arise. That is, man does
  not have societies because he by nature seeks
  society for its own sake.
• Rather, man has developed societies because of
  its usefulness to him, or so he can profit from
  it.

13
MAN AND SOCIETY III

• When people get together it is usually for
  reasons such as business, and not because man
  simply wants to get together out of some regard
  for his fellow man as human.
• And our business relationships, or what business
  calls market-friendships are not based on love
  for our fellow man, but involve instead a good
  deal of jealousy.
• According to Hobbes, all society is either for
  gain or for glory, that is, not so much for love
  of our fellows, as for the love of ourselves.

14
GREED, POWER, AND FEAR

• Hobbes thinks that human nature is such that men
  are greedy and power hungry, and that if all
  fear were removed each person would seek to
  further his own ends rather than agreeing to the
  laws of society.
• For Hobbes, societies have originated, not out of
  the good will that people have had towards one
  another, but in the mutual fear that they had of
  each other.
• Thus, according to Hobbes, I would naturally take
  everything I could for myself if I could get away
  with it, but because I know that you are
  naturally inclined to do the same thing, I am
  afraid that you will want what I have.

15
THE CAUSES OF MUTUAL FEAR

• Hobbes says that men fear each other because of
  their natural equality, and because of their
  mutual desire to hurt others.
• The natural equality of people means that neither
  the bodily strength nor the intelligence of even
  the most superior person will make that person
  safe from someone intent on doing him harm.
• Because even people who are stronger mentally and
  physically than others yet have those who are
  inferior to them to fear, no one can be
  completely secure, and so everyone has others to
  fear.

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LIFE IN THE STATE OF NATURE
17
THE STATE OF NATURE I

• Life in the state of nature is life without
  society, government, rules, laws, courts, and law
  enforcement.
• In the state of nature a person can act as he or
  she chooses, and Hobbes says that all men in the
  state of nature have a desire and will to hurt
  other people.
• In the state of nature it is natural for each
  person to do what is necessary for her own
  survival, and here it is natural for a person to
  gratify himself in whatever ways are possible.

18
THE STATE OF NATURE II

• Hobbes says that the most frequent reason why
  men desire to hurt each other is because many
  men at the same time have an appetite to the same
  thing which yet very often they can neither
  enjoy in common nor yet divide it whence it
  follows that the strongest must have it, and who
  is strongest must be decided by the sword.
• Sommers and Sommers note that Persons in the
  state of nature would have the right of nature
  to preserve themselves by whatever means
  necessary, and Hobbes says that, as every man
  is desirous of what is good for him, and shuns
  what is evil, particularly his own death, it
  is both natural and reasonable for a man to use
  all his endeavors to preserve and defend his body
  and the members thereof from death and sorrows.

19
THE STATE OF NATURE III

• Even though man would be free in the state of
  nature, life in the state of nature would not be
  enjoyable but would be terrible. This is because
  the natural state of men, before they entered
  into society, was a war of all men against all
  men.
• And it is a war of all against all because people
  equally need such things as food, water,
  clothing, and shelter to survive. However, as
  there may not be enough of these things to meet
  the basic needs of everyone, there is competition
  for them.

20
THE STATE OF NATURE IV

• There is a natural competition for these things
  since, as we have seen, Hobbes thinks that
  everyone has the natural right to do what she
  must do in order to survive and protect herself,
  and this includes caring for yourself first, and
  perhaps solely.
• And there is a problem with this natural
  competition because of the natural equality of
  men - that many people will be able to compete
  more or less equally for the same goods.

21
THE STATE OF NATURE V

• In his book Leviathan Hobbes said that, in the
  state of nature there would be no place for
  industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain
  and consequently no culture of the earth no
  navigation, nor use of the commodities that may
  be imported by sea no commodious building no
  instruments of moving and removing, such things
  as require much force no knowledge of the face
  of the earth no account of time no arts no
  letters no society and which is worst of all,
  continual fear, and danger of violent death and
  the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
  and short.

22
FROM THE STATE OF NATURE TO SOCIETIES
23
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT I

• Because of the natural equality of men and their
  mutual will to hurt, we cannot expect security in
  the state of nature. Thus we cannot expect to be
  naturally protected from one another, but can
  only secure protection within a society in which
  people act according to laws that they have
  agreed to abide by.
• It is my fear of you and your fear of me that
  leads us to agree to a social contract or to
  form a society with rules to protect one another
  from each other.

24
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT II

• People have reason to fear one another, and
  because people want protection from others at the
  same time that they want what is good for them,
  they form societies to protect themselves from
  one another.
• In a society one gives up some freedom. For
  instance, you cant just kill your neighbor and
  take his property. However, you gain protection
  since he cannot do the same thing to you.

25
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT III

• Before societies, when man was in a state of
  nature, the natural state of things was a war of
  all against all, but a perpetual war of all
  people against one another is not good, not only
  for the security of one person, but is not good
  for the security of all people.
• Since man values what is good for him at the same
  time that he wants to hurt others for his own
  gain, it is in his interest to enter a society in
  which his rights are protected at the same time
  that he respects the rights of others.

26
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT IV

• According to Hobbes, societies come into being,
  not because people are naturally social animals,
  but because of our natural fear of one another,
  and because no one wants a war of all against
  all.
• And it is rational to give up some of our freedom
  to do whatever we want to whomever we want so
  that we are protected from someone else who would
  do whatever he wanted to us.

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Of Self-Love
David Hume (1711-1776)
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PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM

• According to psychological egoism egoism for the
  present article, people are not really
  benevolent, true friendships are nonexistent,
  public interest is an illusion, and faithfulness
  to an individual, group, or cause is false.
• For the egoist, we might act as if we cared about
  others, but all interest is really self-interest,
  and so we really only ever act in our own
  interest, to serve our own needs.

29
EGOISM AND FEELING I

• Hume says that egoism is false, and he calls it a
  pernicious theory.
• He wonders what kind of person would hold egoism
  to be true, and thinks that it must be someone
  who is utterly lacking in feeling.
• This individual lack of feeling in the egoist is
  then applied to everyone. Thus the egoist thinks
  that everyone is the same as he or she in having
  no interest in or compassion for another.

30
EGOISM AND FEELING II

• For Hume, it is odious to suppose that humanity
  is so lacking in feeling as the egoist supposes,
  and he thinks that an egoist is either a person
  of a corrupted heart, or is someone whose
  examination of humanity is careless and
  superficial.
• It is careless and superficial since people are
  not really as self-absorbed as the egoist
  supposes.
• The egoist supposes that the most generous
  friendship, however sincere, is a modification of
  self-love.

31
EGOISM AND MOTIVATION

• For the egoist, no matter how unselfish a person
  may appear to be, he is really only acting in his
  or her own self interest.
• The egoist thinks that if a person appears to be
  doing good for another, that is because he thinks
  that doing good for another will ultimately be in
  his own self interest.
• And so he really only does good for another
  because ultimately it will reward him to do so.

32
WHY EGOISM IS FALSE

• But Hume thinks that people really do have
  feelings for one another, that they genuinely
  care about the interests of others, and Hume
  thinks that only a kind of perverted philosophy
  like egoism could make us think that kind,
  compassionate people are really selfish.
• For Hume, even someone who is not a particularly
  astute observer of humanity must recognize that
  people are benevolent and generous, that they
  love one another, that friendships are honest,
  and that compassion is genuine.

33
THE BURDEN OF PROVING SELFISHNESS AS THE
MOTIVATION OF VIRTUOUS BEHAVIOR

• Further, Hume thinks that benevolence,
  generosity, love, friendship, kindness, and
  compassion do not have selfishness as their
  cause.
• Because all of these things are obvious from an
  observation of human nature, Hume says that is up
  to the egoist to prove that they are not real,
  and that they actually have selfish interests as
  their cause.
• However, it seems to Hume that the egoist simply
  assumes the truth of universal selfish behavior
  and does not prove it.

34
THE SIMPLICITY OF EGOISM

• In fact, the motive behind egoism as a philosophy
  seems to Hume to be love of simplicity.
• Hume suggests that reducing all human behavior to
  the single simple axiom of egoism is based on
  using physics as a model.
• Physics reduces the physical phenomena of nature
  to sets of the simplest equations possible that
  will explain the phenomena.

35
THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND THE FAILURE
OF EGOISM

• However, human behavior is not as simple as that,
  and attempting to reduce human behavior to the
  single principle of acting always to maximize
  self-interest is simply false.
• That it is false Hume thinks is shown by the
  genuine love that men and women have for one
  another, and by the interest and compassion that
  parents have for their children.
• Hume wonders how can either of these things be
  accounted for by the egoist principle.
• He thinks that it cannot, and, for Hume, there is
  a benevolence in humanity that egoism will not
  explain.

36
Of Benevolence
David Hume (1711-1776)
37
KINDNESS AND GOOD HUMAN QUALITIES

• For Hume, that kindness is good goes without
  saying, and that kindness is good is universally
  agreed upon.
• Terms that speak of benevolence like sociable,
  good-natured, humane, merciful, grateful,
  friendly, generous, and beneficent, or their
  equivalents, are known in all languages, and they
  universally express the highest merit which human
  nature is capable of attaining.
• There are no better qualities that a person can
  have than those marked by such terms.

38
THE UNIVERSAL ADMIRATION OF KINDNESS

• Hume says that in general we can say that
  whatever proceeds from a tender sympathy with
  others and a generous concern for our kind and
  species meets with and deserves the greatest
  approval of mankind.
• For Hume, it is absurd to think that people are
  unconcerned with one another. Rather, kindness
  and concern are part of our nature. It is true
  that these qualities may be stronger in some than
  in others, but they tend to make us prefer what
  is useful and beneficial to mankind to what is
  harmful or dangerous.

39
THE BASIS OF MORALITY

• According to Hume, morality is based on care and
  concern for one another, from feelings of
  benevolence in general, and not on selfishness.
• Hume The notion of morals implies some
  sentiment an attitude, thought, or judgement
  prompted by feeling common to all mankind.
• This is the sentiment of humanity, that others,
  and not simply myself, are taken into
  consideration

40
UNIVERSAL AGREEMENT ON GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES

• Hume notes that it is universally agreed that
  kindness, friendship, gratitude, affection, and
  concern and sympathy for others are good
  qualities.
• It is also universally agreed that greed, selfish
  ambition, conceit, and love for oneself alone are
  bad qualities.
• For Hume, morality must be based on the good
  qualities, the qualities that are universally
  prized, not the bad qualities that are
  universally despised.

41
ETHICAL EGOISM AND UNIVERSALLY ADMIRED QUALITIES

• This would exclude ethical egoism as proper moral
  philosophy because ethical egoism says that no
  person ever has an obligation to anyone but
  himself, never needs to take another into
  consideration if it is not in his interest to do
  so.
• The common point of view for Hume is the view of
  humanity, that the good qualities are good, and
  that the bad qualities are to be avoided.
• And Hume thinks that morality ought to be based
  on the qualities that are universally perceived
  to be good.

42
THE INDIVIDUAL, SOCIETY, AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF
MORALITY

• Thus Hume thinks that the good qualities, which
  take humanity into consideration, and dont
  simply end with the individual, are what morality
  should be based on.
• Thus he says that The humanity of one man is the
  humanity of everyone.
• (cf. Thomas Nagels view that there is no
  substitute for a direct concern with other people
  as the basis of morality - also an anti-egoist
  point of view.)
• The good qualities of humanity apply to everyone,
  and so morality is universal, not limited to the
  cares and concerns of a single individual, as
  egoism would have it.

43
The Virtue of Selfishness
Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
44
THE ORDINARY MEANING OF SELFISHNESS I

• For Ayn Rand, the ordinary meaning of selfishness
  is both wrong and dangerous.
• This is because it - more than anything else - is
  responsible for the arrested moral development
  of mankind.
• The ordinary meaning of selfishness is wrong
  because ordinarily selfishness is thought to be a
  kind of evil.

45
THE ORDINARY MEANING OF SELFISHNESS II

• In ordinary language one would not praise someone
  for her selfishness. If I said about someone
  that he was one of the more selfish people I had
  ever known, you would understand me to be saying
  something negative, not positive.
• We commonly think that a selfish person only
  cares about himself and only acts to achieve his
  own desires.
• We think that this is bad because we think that
  each person ought to care about others in
  addition to himself, and that people ought
  sometimes to consider things other than their own
  desires - such as the feelings and welfare of
  others.

46
THE TRUE MEANING OF SELFISHNESS I

• Rand says that this is not the true meaning of
  selfishness. The true meaning of selfishness is
  concern with ones own interests.
• When selfishness is defined in this way, it is
  not something evil.
• This is because the definition says nothing about
  moral evaluation. That is, it says nothing about
  whether concern with ones own interests is a
  good or a bad thing.

47
THE TRUE MEANING OF SELFISHNESS II

• Telling what is good and bad is the job of
  ethics, and not a definition of selfishness.
• Defining selfishness as concern with ones own
  interests also does not tell us what mans
  interests are.

48
ALTRUISM I

• Altruism is an unselfish interest in the welfare
  of others, and Rand thinks that it is altruism
  that has given selfishness its bad name.
• Altruism gives selfishness its bad name because,
  according to her, for altruism two things are
  true
• 1) Any concern with ones own interests is
  evil, regardless of what those interests might
  be.
• 2) Any action that concerns the benefit of
  others is good.

49
ALTRUISM II

• For Rand, altruism confuses values with the
  question of which people values should concern.
• For altruism the important point is that values
  should concern people other than yourself.
• But Rand says that, since altruism only tells us
  who should be the beneficiary of values - other
  people - and does not tell us anything about
  values themselves, altruism leaves people without
  moral guidance.

50
ALTRUISM III

• Rand says that altruism does not say anything
  except that the focus of morality is other
  people.
• And it would seem to suggest that anything goes
  as long as it benefits someone else.
• For Rand, altruism is a moral philosophy that is
  the cause of immorality, injustice, double
  standards, and the conflicts that characterize
  human relationships.

51
ALTRUISM IV

• An example of altruism that Rand finds appalling
  is a person giving up her abilities and dreams to
  achieve something excellent, for instance in the
  arts, in order to care for her parents.
• Because the focus of altruism is on
  self-sacrifice, Rand says that people learn that
  morality is the enemy.
• This is because the morality of altruism says
  that a person ought to concentrate on others to
  the neglect of his own desires and interests.

52
ALTRUISM V

• Rand thinks that a person will realize that she
  has nothing to gain and everything to lose from
  the philosophy of altruism.
• And Rand thinks that people mutually sacrificing
  for one another makes them resent one another.
• For altruism, a person possesses no moral worth
  apart from his or her sacrifice for others.
• A persons own life, from the standpoint of
  altruism, is at worst evil, or at best, amoral.

53
ALTRUISM VI

• Altruism can give the individual no guidance how
  to conduct his own life in relation to himself,
  only in regard to others, where the duty is
  self-sacrifice.
• Not to sacrifice for others is selfish according
  to altruism, in the sense of selfishness that
  altruism finds evil.
• Rand points out that nature does not
  automatically provide for the needs of people,
  that we need to learn to provide for ourselves.

54
ALTRUISM VII

• According to Rand, any philosophy that says that
  it is wrong for us to care for ourselves, to have
  concern for ourselves, is to view a persons life
  as evil.
• For Rand, nothing could be more evil than such a
  philosophy.
• Rand thinks that altruism does not allow a person
  to respect herself in being self-supporting.
• The selfishness that Rand supports is that of the
  person who supports his life by his own effort
  and neither sacrifices himself nor others.

55
ALTRUISM VIII

• For Rand, the problem with altruism is that
  people are viewed as either sacrificial animals
  or as pirates, as either victims or aggressors.
• As such it permits no sense of people living
  harmoniously, and permits no concept of justice.
• Altruism causes people to be cynical since they
  neither practice nor really accept altruism as a
  correct moral philosophy.
• And altruism causes people to feel guilty because
  they feel that they ought not to reject it.

56
THE EVIL OF ALTRUISM AND THE VIRTUE OF
SELFISHNESS

• For Rand, the evil of altruism can be eliminated
  by refusing to admit its basic premises that any
  action taken for the benefit of others is good,
  and that any action taken for ones own benefit
  is evil.
• To redeem both man and morality, it is the
  concept of selfishness that one has to redeem.
• Here it is necessary to recall that, for Rand,
  selfishness means concern with ones own
  interest. It is not the negative concept of
  selfishness where one cares only about ones own
  interest and cares nothing for others.

57
Egoism, Self-interest, and Altruism
Louis Pojman
58
RANDS VIEW OF ALTRUISM I

• Louis Pojman first looks at Ayn Rands definition
  of altruism as the view that anything done for
  the benefit of others is good, and anything done
  for the benefit of oneself is bad.
• Rand further says that the beneficiary of an
  action is the only criterion of moral value - and
  as long as the beneficiary is anyone other than
  oneself anything goes.
• For Rand, altruism is a kind of moral madness,
  since if a person accepts altruism then she does
  not ask herself how she ought to live her life,
  but how she ought to sacrifice it.

59
RANDS VIEW OF ALTRUISM II

• For Rand, the evil of altruism is that it does
  not allow us to value our own lives as we value
  the lives of others.
• Rand thinks that, since individual happiness is
  both the highest good and goal in life, altruism
  is bad. This is because it asks us to sacrifice
  our own happiness.
• And in sacrificing our own happiness for the sake
  of others we act contrary to what is the highest
  good.

60
RANDS ARGUMENT FOR ETHICAL EGOISM

• 1. The perfection of ones abilities in a state
  of happiness is the highest goal for humans. We
  have a moral duty to reach this goal.
• 2. The ethics of altruism prescribes that we
  sacrifice our interests and lives for the good of
  others.
• 3. Ethical egoism prescribes that we seek our
  own happiness exclusively, and as such it is
  consistent with the happiness goal.
• 4. Therefore ethical egoism is the correct
  moral theory.

61
ALTRUISM OR EGOISM? I

• Pojman accuses Rand of the fallacy of a false
  dilemma in assuming here that we must choose
  between either altruism or egoism and that there
  is no other alternative.
• He says that this is wrong, and that there are a
  number of other options.
• Pojman also says that self-interest and concern
  for others need not be incompatible.

62
ALTRUISM OR EGOISM? II

• He is not denying that self-love and
  self-interest are good things, as Rand maintains.
  He is maintaining that, when there is a contest
  between my interests and yours, each persons
  interests and needs would have to be fairly
  assessed.
• Pojman says that, even if egoism is wrong, it
  does not follow that the only other alternative
  is altruism. And it does not follow that, if we
  should not just consider our own interests but
  the interests of others, we ought only to
  consider the interests of others and not our own.

63
GENES AND BEHAVIOR

• Pojman thinks that the work of certain scientists
  in sociobiology - such as Edward O. Wilson, John
  Maynard Smith, and Richard Dawkins - has produced
  a theory of morality that combines radical
  individualism with limited altruism.
• For these thinkers, it is not the group or the
  species that is of evolutionary importance but
  the gene, or, more precisely, gene type. -
  Dawkins The Selfish Gene.
• Much of human behavior is designed to ensure the
  reproduction of genes, and we are essentially
  gene machines.

64
RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM I

• Pojman thinks that a position intermediate
  between egoism and complete altruism is a
  reciprocal relationship between people where
  individuals help themselves and also help others.
• The idea is that, if you care for me I will care
  for you, and if I care for you you will care for
  me.
• This is the notion of reciprocal altruism, or a
  rational morality based on cooperative
  self-interest.

65
RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM II

• In this quid pro quo - or Ill care for you if
  you care for me morality, the reciprocal
  altruist is someone who is willing to share with
  those willing to cooperate.
• Reciprocal altruism differs from complete
  altruism in that people have duties to
  reciprocate and cooperate with one another, but a
  person has no obligation to help someone who
  manipulates or take advantage of her.

66
RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM III

• Reciprocal altruism also says that a person has
  no obvious duty to sacrifice himself for people
  outside of those people who are close to him and
  with which he is most concerned, namely, his
  family and friends.
• For Pojman, the best course of morality - and the
  best route to happiness - is reciprocal altruism
  the position that is intermediate between egoism
  and altruism, avoiding the extremes of either.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM

• Psychological egoism is the view that every
  person is completely selfish, that everything a
  person does is motivated by self-interest.
• According to psychological egoism, when it
  appears that a person is acting out of
  consideration for others he is really acting in
  his own interest. This is because he believes
  that it is in his interest to help others.
• Further, psychological egoism says that, if the
  person did not believe this, then he would not do
  what he is doing for others.

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ETHICAL EGOISM

• Ethical egoism is a normative view about how
  people ought to act regardless of how they do in
  fact act. It says that a person has no
  obligation to do anything but what is in her best
  interest.
• Thus ethical egoism says that I should do what is
  good for me and avoid doing what is bad for me,
  and these considerations alone need guide my
  behavior, including behavior which affects
  others.
• For ethical egoism a person is always justified
  in doing whatever is in her interest, and no
  matter what effect what she does has on other
  people.