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Rational egoism is the philosophical view that it is always in accordance with reason to pursue one's own interests. Rational egoism is distinguished from psychological egoism in that it is not a claim about how people actually act, and from ethical egoism which claims that it is a moral imperative to act egoistically. Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, links its rational values directly to egoism. Her book The Virtue of Selfishness explains in depth the concept of egoism.[1] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Reason is a term used in philosophy and other human sciences to refer to the faculty of the human mind that creates and operates with abstract concepts. ...
Psychological egoism is the view that humans are always motivated by self-interest, even in what seem to be acts of altruism. ...
Ethical egoism is belief that one ought to do what is in ones own self-interest. ...
Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of good and evil —also referred to as right or wrong, used within three contexts: individual conscience, systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values —shared within a cultural, religious, secular, Humanist, or philosophical community; and codes...
It has been suggested that The Ayn Rand Collective be merged into this article or section. ...
Objectivism is the philosophy developed by Russian-born American philosopher and author Ayn Rand. ...
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism is a 1964 collection of essays and papers by Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden. ...
Principles
The version of rational egoism defined by Rand consists of the principle that pursing personal interest is rational, and not seeking personal interest is irrational.[2] The principle of another version is while seeking personal interest is rational, there may be occasions when not seeking it is not necessarily irrational.[3]
Ayn Rand's version In Rand's view, there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness. Rational egoism, however, is not an excuse to act on every whim or emotional impulse,[4] because it is irrational to desire what one has not earned. [5] Happiness requires objective principles, like moral integrity and a respect for the rights of others. This exhibits itself in politics, because rational government would be the least restrictive while protecting everyone's right to life, liberty and property, and forbidding the initiation of force by anyone against anyone.[6] Politics is a process by which decisions are made within groups. ...
Other versions The possibility of situations where acting on selfishness can cause a less desirable situation created the belief that not acting on selfishness is not immoral. An example of this situation, known as Prisoner's dilemma, is discussed in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.[7] In this situation, two suspects in an investigation are taken into custody and split up. Each is offered a plea bargain individually, if they turn state's evidence and betray the other. If they both betray, they each serve 2 years in prison. However, if the other suspect doesn't betray, then the one betraying goes free and the other serves 10 years. If neither betrays, then they will only spend six months in prison. The dilemma can be summarized as thus; Will the two prisoners cooperate to minimize total loss of liberty or will one of them, trusting the other to cooperate, betray him so as to go free? In game theory, the prisoners dilemma is a type of non-zero-sum game in which two players can cooperate with...
In 1944 Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, a book by the mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern. ...
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ...
| Prisoner B Stays Silent | Prisoner B Betrays | | Prisoner A Stays Silent | Both serve six months | Prisoner A serves ten years
Prisoner B goes free | | Prisoner A Betrays | Prisoner A goes free
Prisoner B serves ten years | Both serve two years | This shows that circumstances may exist in which rational pursuit of self-interest does not lead to a Pareto optimal solution. Egoists debate whether or not this can be applied to the philosophy of rational egoism.[8] Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is an important notion in economics with broad applications in game theory, engineering and the social sciences. ...
In diplomatic, political and military terms, this situation is known, generally, as 'divide and conquer' which takes full and dependable advantage of the conflicting self-interests of the opposing allied parties group's individual members to overcome the allied group's collective interest. The United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization. ...
Criticism Adaptive egoism is an alternative to rational egoism. It applies the principles of rational egoism with the added belief that not everything is clear-cut. It consists of the philosophy that a common good can be desirable to the individual. For example replacing rational egoism in politics and economics with adaptive egoism would construct a better social structure.[9] A general reaction to rational egoism is the belief that it allows people to do anything they want to maximize their pleasure. Defenders state that pleasure is not happiness, and therefore not the moral goal. Taking into account all aspects of a decision, rational egoists would do what leads to maximum happiness, both short term and long term, without overstepping other's rights. For example, someone who uses drugs achieves maximum pleasure in the moment, but a rational egoist would avoid using drugs knowing it would do harm to him. Face-to-face trading interactions among on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor In the social sciences, economics is the study of human choice behavior and how it effects the production, distribution, and consumption of scarce resources. ...
See also The Objectivist ethics is a subset of the Objectivist philosophy formulated by Ayn Rand. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
It has been suggested that The Ayn Rand Collective be merged into this article or section. ...
Will the two prisoners cooperate to minimize total loss of liberty or will one of them, trusting the other to cooperate, betray him so as to go free? In game theory, the prisoners dilemma is a type of non-zero-sum game in which two players can cooperate with...
References - ^ Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness, New American Library, 1964.
- ^ Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged, New American Library, 1957.
- ^ Egoism, http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/egoism.htm#SH2a
- ^ What is Objectivism?, http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth-32-408-FAQ_is_Objectivism.aspx
- ^ Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness, New American Library, 1964.
- ^ Rand, Ayn. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, New American Library, 1967
- ^ Evolutionary Game Theory, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-evolutionary
- ^ Egoism, http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/egoism.htm#SH2a
- ^ Rational Egoism Versus Adaptive Egoism as Fundamental Postulate for a Descriptive Theory of Human Behavior, http://www.springerlink.com/content/j260076947v55404
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