Why Should You Be An Egoist?
If you seek happiness, sustainable well-being, and meaningful relationships, you should be an egoist.
Ethical egoism, which we typically just call “egoism,” is the belief that you ought to do what is in your self-interest. Pursuing self-interest means pursuing fulfillment and joy. A life dedicated to one’s self-interest is the good life, where one enjoys deep and meaningful relationships with friends and loved ones, free from the control of guilt or shame.
Egoism does not mean self-obsession, narcissim, or hedonism – the pursuit of short-term pleasure. These destructive mentalities inevitably lead to lonliness and sorrow, which we stive to avoid. The authors and editors here will argue that, due to our empathetic capacity, caring for and loving others is actually in our self-interest.
At the same time, egoism is love for its own sake. In contrast to beliefs like utilitarianism and altruism, egoism holds that no one should ever feel obligated to act or feel a certain way towards another human being. We will argue that altruistic love is a contradiction in terms, and that utilitarian love is poorly-disguised and meaningless whim-worship. True love – love that values – is only possible through egoism.
Why should you be an Egoist? Egoism is the only ethic that can guide us to happiness, because it is the only ethic asking the right question: “will this decision make me happy?”
I would traditionally consider myself a Utilitarianism, but your general description of Ethical Egotism leads me to believe that they are ultimately the same thing, given that my personal interests are ultimately served best by the same thing that serves the whole best. Only when society is not in turmoil is it possible to be truly happy, or else we quickly fall into suffering.
While I agree with your comments that forced love is not true love and that compulsion is inherently negative, this is a principle statement that I feel does not recognise the practicalities of ignorance, and that a huge amount of work is required to achieve this (though I agree is should definitely be the goal). This work nearly always requires sacrifice in the short term for longer term goals.
I would value your thoughts on this.
Utilitarianism and egoism, while stemming from the same premise that joy/pleasure and suffering/pain are what matter, differ wildly on one point, GYonung: Utilitarianism will eventually require a sacrifice of those who are not willing to give it. I seek the greatest good for me, while those like Mill seek “the greatest good for the greatest number.” We reject Utilitarianism’s zero-agent view of rights, among other things, but we’ll cover all of this in upcoming posts.
Yes, we do and should trade short-term losses for long-term gains, but only if those long-term gains are worth it. We should do that which is in our self-interest, which requires a long-term focus.
Please could you explain why egoism is not already believed by every human? Does not everyone only ever do what will make them happiest in the long-run? We all make our decisions based on what will make us happiest.
Even the man who dies for his brother does it because he would rather (i.e it makes him happier) sacrifice his own life than see his brother die.
Or, for another example, I am a Christian because being a Christian is in my self-interest (having concluded that the force behind the Universe is both real and the one revealed in the Bible). Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems as though you see egoism and Christianity as mutually contradictory, but I don’t see how on the basis of the definition that egoism is doing what is ultimately in your self-interest. Is not everyone an egoist? Whether they be Muslim, Christian, atheist or agnostic?
Kind Regards,
Duncan
Thanks for the question, Duncan. To answer, I suggest first reading about psychological vs. ethical egoism. The kind of egoism that you are suggesting everyone follows by default is known as psychological egoism.
We are ethical egoists. I believe that it is clear that someone can perform an action that he/she knows is not in his/her interest. People can, for example, be knowingly self-destructive and self-sacrificing.
Ethical egoism means, among other things, caring first about what actually makes you happy. If your life revolves around making other people happy with no regard to your own joy, you are not practicing ethical egoism. If, on the other hand, you help other people BECAUSE it brings you joy, then you might be.
While I know of a few Christians who identify themselves as ethical egoists, the Bible runs clearly counter to this ideal. The core belief of Christianity is the altruistic self-sacrifice of Jesus.
I hope this helps.
“Ego” has always been a bad word in my vocabulary.I suppose I have always defined it in the negative.
I have never run across the term “ethical egoist” before, my formal philosophical education is minimal. Thank you.
When I was Christian, I wanted to do the right thing, you want to save people from hell. There is that desire to help people, self sacrifice and so forth because I wanted to. But as soon after I would always find myself obsessing over how pleased God is with me, how awesomely spiritual I was and then I would begin to fantasize about what kind of rewards I would get in heaven, how I would be more respected in heaven…. and then guilt that I was not doing it more..And it would soon become twisted into some wierd insecure self-esteem-killing VIP worshiping mind-fuk.
As an atheist I am still motivated by non-egotistical self sacrifice, but this time around it brings me greater inner peace without the mind-screw that my favorite celebrity will heap praise and reward upon me for doing so.
It has become more genuine and fulfilling to self sacrifice, for the sake of it, because it makes me feel good to make someone else feel loved. Not because I want to convert, change a persons mind, or please a god, or get rewards in heaven. I no longer need those things to motivate myself
And my job definitely gives me daily opportunities to help the helpless and interact with Society, which is why I love my job. I drive a night shift taxi in a big city.