Enlightened Egoism

Prepared by-
Jyoti Loharia
IBMR Section B
Enlightened
 Factually well-informed, tolerant of alternative
opinions, and guided by rational thought
 Claiming a sense of spiritual or religious revelation
of truth
 People who have been introduced to the mysteries
of some field or activity
 Highly educated; having extensive information or
understanding.
 Having knowledge and spiritual insight
 Freed from illusion
 Having or based on relevant experience
Egoism

 Concern for one's own interests and welfare

 (ethics) The belief that moral behavior should
be directed toward one's self-interest.
 The ethical belief that self-interest is the just
and proper motive for all human conduct.
Enlightened Egoism

 Enlightened egoism suggests that helping

others IS in your interest
 It claims that it is in our self-interest to serve
others, as well as ourselves
 Sometimes 'enlightened egoism' is advocated
as a means rather than an end, on the
grounds that for everyone to pursue their own
interest will maximize the general prosperity.
Example

 An example might be if your friend is having a

bad day. A strict egoist might say, "forget that
loser... everybody has to take care of
themselves". An enlightened egoist, on the
other hand, would probably say, "When that
person is happy, it makes me happy... so I
should help my friend out".
Origin
 Enlightened self-interest was a concept that Alexis
de Tocqueville discussed in his work Democracy in
America. The notion he held was that Americans
voluntarily join together in associations to further the
interests of the group and, thereby, to serve their
own interests. Using "self-Interest rightly
understood" (Tocqueville 1835) to describe this
concept, he combined the right of association with
the virtue to do what was right.
Thomas Hobbes
 "'Good' and 'evil' are inconstant names applied haphazardly by
different men to what attracts or repels them. This egotistical
psychology makes the life of man in a pre-social state of nature,
'nasty, brutish and short,' a constant war of everyman with
everyman. Rational, enlightened self-interest makes men want to
escape such a predicament by the establishment of a contract in
which they surrender the right of aggression, but not that of self-
defence, to an absolute sovereign, whose commands are the
law, freedom being relegated to the spheres not covered by the
sovereign's commands. The social contract is binding only so
long as the sovereign has power to enforce it. Sovereignty may
be vested in a person or an assembly, but it must be indivisible,
not a division of powers between King and Parliament, church
and state." (Chambers.)