EGOISM- any view that, in a certain way, makes the self central.

There
are several different versions of egoism, all of which have to do with
how actions relate to the self. Ethical egoism is the view that people
ought to do what is in their own self-interest. Psychological egoism is a
view about people`s motives, inclinations, or dispositions. One
statement of psychological egoism says that, as a matter of fact,
people always do what they believe is in their self-interest and, human
nature being what it is, they cannot do otherwise. another says that
people naver desire anything for its own sake expect what they believe
is in their own self-interest.
Altrusim is the opposite of egoism. Any ethical view that implies that
people sometimes ought to do what is in the interest of others and not
in their self-interest can be considered a form of ethical altruism. The
view that, human nature being what it is, people can do what they do
not believe to be in their self-interest might be called psychological
altruism. Different species of ethical and psychological egoism result
from different interpretations of self-interest and of acting from self-
interest, respectively. Some people have a broad conception of acting
from self-interest such that people acting from desire to help others
can be said to be acting out of self-interest, provided they think doing
so will not, on balance, take away from own good. Others have a
narrower conception of acting from self-intetrest such that one acts
from self-interest only if one acts from the desire to further one`s own
happiness or good. Butler identified self-love with the desire to further
one`s own happiness or good and self-interested action with action
performed from that desire alone. Since we obviously have other
particular desires, such as the desires for honor , for power, for
revenge, and to promote the good of others, he concluded that
psychological egoism was false. People with a broader conception of
acting from self-interest would ask whether anyone with those
particular desires would act on them if they believed that, on balance,
acting on them would result in a loss of happiness or good for
themselves. If some would,then psychological egoism is false, but if ,
given human nature as it is, no one would . it is true even if self-love is
not the only source of motivation in human beings.
Just as there are broader and narrower conceptions of acting from self-
interest , there are broader and narrower conceptions of self-interest
itself, as well as subjective and objective conceptions of self-
interest.Subjective conceptions relate a person`s self-interest solely to
the satisfaction of his desires or to what that person believes will make
his life go best for him. Objective conceptions see self-interest,at least
in part, as independent of the person`s desires and beliefs. Some
conceptions of self-interest are narrower than others, allowing that the
satisfaction of only certain desires is in a person`s self-interest, e.g.
desires whose satisfaction makes that person`s life go better for her.
And some conceptions of self-interest count only the satisfaction of
idealized desires,ones that someone would have after reflection about
the nature of those desires and what they typically lead to, as
furthering a person`s self-interest.