egoism
Egoism is the habit of putting your own interests first; in philosophy, the view that self-interest is, or should be, the basis of every action.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- A tendency to think mainly about oneself and to place one's own needs and wishes above those of other people.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In ethics: the theory that each person ought to act in their own long-term interest, usually called ethical egoism.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In psychology and philosophy of mind: the claim that people in fact always act from self-interest, even when they seem to help others, usually called psychological egoism.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Historically, in philosophy: a doctrine that finds all the elements of knowledge in the self and its relations.
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Examples
- Her egoism showed in small things: she always took the best seat and never asked anyone else what they wanted to eat.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The seminar compared ethical egoism with utilitarianism and asked which theory better explains everyday moral choices.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Critics argued that the country's trade policy was national egoism dressed up as prudence.
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Usage
In everyday English egoism is a criticism. People use it about someone who keeps choosing what suits them best, ignores the wishes of others and rarely shares time, money or attention. The word is more formal than selfishness and appears more often in essays, reviews, political commentary and academic writing than in casual speech, where selfish and self-centred are the usual choices.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Egoism is often confused with egotism, and the two overlap. Egotism stresses an inflated opinion of oneself, shown in boasting and in talking constantly about I and me, while egoism stresses self-interest as the motive behind choices. An egotist wants admiration; an egoist wants advantage. Writers who care about the difference keep egotism for vanity and egoism for selfish priorities or for the philosophical theories named after it.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)In philosophy the word is neutral and technical. Ethical egoism says that acting in one's own interest is morally right, while psychological egoism says that people cannot act any other way, so every apparently generous act hides a personal benefit. Debates about these positions are a standard part of introductory ethics courses, where they are set against altruism and against theories that judge actions by their effects on everyone.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)The 1913 edition of Webster lists two senses of the word. The first is philosophical, the doctrine of some followers of Descartes and Fichte that all knowledge is found in the ego; the second is excessive love and thought of self, the habit of treating oneself as the centre of every interest, and it is explicitly opposed to altruism. A person marked by egoism is an egoist, the adjective is egoistic and the adverb is egoistically.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Word forms
Regular forms according to English morphology (editorial description); the noun is mostly used without a plural.
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | egoism |
| plural | egoisms |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- ethical egoism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - psychological egoism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - national egoism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - sheer egoism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - an act of egoism
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Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourcealso
W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourceRelated words
- egoist , agent noun
- egoistic , adjective
- egotism , related word
- altruism , antonym
Related entries
Questions and answers
What does egoism mean?
Egoism means putting your own interests, needs and wishes ahead of other people's. In philosophy it also names theories that treat self-interest as the real or the proper motive of every action.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)What is the difference between egoism and egotism?
Egoism is about self-interest: an egoist acts for personal advantage. Egotism is about vanity: an egotist talks about himself too much and has an inflated opinion of his own importance. In casual use the two are often mixed up.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)What is ethical egoism?
Ethical egoism is the position that pursuing one's own good is what morality requires, so a right action is one that serves the agent. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people always act selfishly whether they ought to or not.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)What is the opposite of egoism?
The usual opposite is altruism, unselfish concern for the welfare of others. The 1913 Webster entry for egoism already names altruism as its opposite, and the two words are still paired in ethics.