Egoism The term “egoism” is ordinarily used to mean “exclusive concern with satisfying one’s own desires, getting what one wants.” Dictionaries tend to support this. They call “egoism”, for instance, “1. selfishness; self-interest. 2. conceit.” The term “egotist” is often a substitute, although it’s defined differently, for example, as “excessive reference to oneself.” The ego is the self. But ...

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American philosopher, novelist, and playwright, whose interpretation of ethical egoism is one of the most important interpretations of this theory.  Rand is a proponent of intellectual egoism, and rationalism is a fundamental element in her ethical theory. This article attempts to review, analyze, and criticize her interpretation of ethical egoism.   Additionally, an...

IN their endeavors to show that ethical egoism is an unacceptable moral theory, moral philosophers have tended to argue that either (a) the theory is internally inconsistent, (b) an ethical egoist is committed to a form of solipsism, or (c) the theory cannot, properly speaking, be considered a moral theory.l It would seem, though, that such arguments have not been particularly persuasive. Howev...

C RITICAL DISCUSSIONS of the ideas of the philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand are often most interesting, especially in what they say about the critic and about Rand's relation to today's philosophical orthodoxy. In "Life and the Theory of Value," J. Charles King continues the criticism of Rand's ethics undertaken by Robert Nozick in his article, "On the Randian Argument."' Nozick's critique was exam...