egoism
Enable an agent to recognize, distinguish and evaluate egoist claims by recording whose interests count, what self-interest means and whether the claim concerns motivation, morality or rational choice.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognize, distinguish and evaluate egoist claims by recording whose interests count, what self-interest means and whether the claim concerns motivation, morality or rational choice.
Egoism is a family of philosophical positions that treat an agent's own interest as the ultimate aim of motivation or the determining basis of moral obligation or rational action.
It can be Classify an attributed claim as psychological, ethical or rational egoism and identify mixtures.; Expose missing definitions of self-interest before drawing implications from a claim.; Compare how competing egoist positions assess the same action or conflict.; Check whether an argument shifts from facts about motives to claims about obligation without a supporting premise.; Construct counterexamples and identify what evidence or argument would count against a stated position.; Record implications of a position conditionally without treating the position as authorization to act..
Distinguishing features
A psychological egoist claim explains ultimate motives; an ethical egoist claim prescribes conduct, and neither follows from the other without additional premises.
An egoist account identifies the agent's own interests as motivationally decisive or normatively privileged; merely mentioning personal benefit is insufficient.
An action that helps others can be consistent with egoism when its ultimate motive or justification is the agent's own interest.
Preference satisfaction counts as egoistic only when the relevant account connects the preferences to the agent's own good; preferences can concern other people's welfare.
Self-praise, vanity or an isolated selfish act does not by itself establish commitment to an egoist philosophical position.
Scope
+ Psychological egoism as a claim about the ultimate motivation of action
+ Ethical egoism as a position about what agents morally ought to do
+ Rational egoism as a position about what agents have reason to do
+ Accounts of self-interest, including their beneficiaries and time horizons
+ Arguments, objections and practical implications attributed to specific egoist positions
- Egotism understood as self-importance or boastfulness
- Narcissism and other psychological traits or clinical classifications
- Individualism as a broader social or political orientation
- Altruism as an independently modeled account of motivation or obligation
- Economic choice models that leave the content of preferences unspecified
- Biographies, organizations and political programs associated with particular advocates
Characteristics
- Claim mode
- psychological-descriptive | ethical-normative | rational-normative | mixed | unresolved Determines whether assessment concerns explanatory evidence, moral justification or reasons for action.
- Strength of self-interest priority
- exclusive | overriding | defeasible | unspecified Separates strict egoism from weaker positions that may allow independent concern for others.
- Account of personal good
- pleasure | desire satisfaction | welfare | flourishing | source-defined alternative | unspecified Different accounts can recommend different actions while all appealing to self-interest.
- Interest beneficiary
- claim → agent whose interests are privileged, with any extension of the self explicitly stated Prevents another person's benefit or collective advantage from being silently treated as the agent's own good.
- Applicability
- all agents pursuing their respective interests | specified agent | restricted class | unspecified Distinguishes a general doctrine from special privilege asserted for one person.
- Temporal treatment
- immediate | lifetime | explicitly discounted | source-defined horizon | unspecified Explains how present sacrifice can serve an egoist account of long-term benefit.
- Assessment status
- formulated | source-attributed | under evaluation | contested | unresolved Keeps identification of a position separate from acceptance of its truth or justification.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.egoism
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 15 findings · 25 questions.
Egoist claim identity Identify the particular egoist thesis being modeled and distinguish it from neighboring uses of the term.
The word egoism alone does not establish whether a claim explains motivation or supplies a normative standard.
Descriptive and normative force
Record what kind of assertion the position makes.
Claim mode and target
Capture whether the thesis concerns actual motives, moral duties or rational reasons, including its target class of actions.
- Does this formulation explain why agents act, prescribe what they morally ought to do or specify what they have reason to do? definition
- Does it cover all actions, intentional actions, ultimate motives or only a restricted class of choices? boundary
Attribution and neighboring senses
Tie the formulation to its actual use rather than to assumptions triggered by its label.
Source-specific egoism
Record the formulation's provenance and whether egoism is a self-description, an interpreter's classification or a colloquial label.
- Which passage supplies this formulation, and who calls it egoism? provenance
- What makes this a thesis about self-interest rather than egotism, individualism or an accusation of selfishness? boundary
Constitution of self-interest Specify the good being pursued, the beneficiary and the period over which benefit is assessed.
Appeals to self-interest remain indeterminate until the model records what makes an outcome good for the agent.
Personal good and beneficiary
Separate the content of personal good from the identity of its beneficiary.
Interest content
Capture how the position defines an agent's good and handles desires directed toward other people.
- Is the agent's good defined through pleasure, fulfilled desires, welfare, flourishing or another explicit account? definition
- When the agent wants another person to flourish, does the position count that person's welfare as an ultimate end or only as a contribution to the agent's good? boundary
Time and benefit assessment
Record how the position compares present costs, future gains and uncertain consequences.
Benefit comparison rule
Specify the position's treatment of time and uncertainty without assuming that personal good has a numerical scale.
- Over what horizon are gains and losses assessed, and what comparison method, if any, does the formulation provide? measurement
- Does it evaluate choices by actual outcomes, expected outcomes or what the agent reasonably believed would serve their interests? definition
Motivation and altruistic appearance Represent psychological egoist explanations and their treatment of apparently other-directed conduct.
Beneficial consequences for the actor do not by themselves establish that self-benefit was the actor's ultimate motive.
Ultimate and instrumental motives
Distinguish the end sought from intermediate means and incidental emotional rewards.
Motive-benefit separation
Record whether self-benefit is alleged to be the aim of an action, a means to another aim or merely a consequence.
- What evidence would distinguish helping to obtain personal satisfaction from feeling satisfaction because a desired benefit to another occurred? measurement
- Does the account allow mixed ultimate motives, or must every ultimate motive concern the actor's own good? definition
Counterexamples and testability
Capture how a motivational thesis could be challenged by sacrifice, anonymous assistance or other candidate cases.
Admissible disconfirmation
Identify whether the claim permits evidence against it or makes every possible motive egoistic by definition.
- What conceivable observation would count against this psychological egoist formulation? measurement
- Does its response to apparent self-sacrifice supply independent evidence of a self-directed motive or simply infer one from the fact that the action was chosen? boundary
Normative priority and conflict Specify how ethical or rational egoism assigns priority and handles incompatible interests.
A normative egoist position needs an explicit account of whose interests govern a decision and what that priority requires.
Normative demand
Record the strength and reach of a self-interest requirement.
Priority and choice standard
Capture whether self-interest is the sole standard, an overriding consideration or a qualified reason, and whether the agent must maximize it.
- Must an agent maximize their own good, reach a sufficient level or merely give it special weight? definition
- Are other people's interests independent reasons or constraints, and if so, does the source still classify this position as egoism? boundary
Interpersonal conflict
Represent cases in which different agents' self-interest recommends incompatible actions.
Agent-relative recommendations
Record each agent's recommendation separately and whether the position offers any shared adjudication rule.
- Does the doctrine direct every agent to pursue their own interests, or privilege one specified person's interests? definition
- When those interests conflict, what may each agent do, and does the doctrine provide a common resolution procedure? action
Arguments and conditional application Track support for egoist theses and derive practical implications only from stated premises.
An agent must distinguish reconstructing an egoist argument from endorsing it or assuming that all egoist variants yield the same advice.
Justificatory structure
Expose the premises connecting motivation, personal good, rationality and moral obligation.
Bridges between claim types
Record additional premises used to move between descriptive, rational and ethical conclusions.
- If the argument begins with how people are motivated, what further premise supports its conclusion about how they ought to act? definition
- Which source states the connecting premise, and is that premise defended or merely assumed? provenance
Cooperation and sacrifice
Test practical implications through cases where immediate and longer-term interests diverge.
Conditional conduct evaluation
Assess cooperation, promise-keeping and sacrifice under the recorded variant and account of personal good.
- Under this position, when would cooperation or keeping a costly promise serve the agent's own interests? action
- If an action benefits only others and offers no relevant benefit to the agent, does this formulation forbid it, permit it or classify it as irrational? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- With no recorded sense, this describes philosophical egoism rather than ordinary selfishness or egotism.
- Egoism is a family of positions studied within philosophy, not ordinarily a separate discipline.
- Definitions differ over maximizing versus promoting self-interest and over what constitutes the agent's good; these distinctions require checking for any specific thinker or theory.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of egoism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Psychological egoism
- Ethical egoism
- Rational egoism
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of egoism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Psychological egoism frames debates about whether apparently altruistic actions ultimately serve self-interested motives.
- Ethical egoism is examined in moral philosophy as a proposed basis for deciding how one ought to act.
- Rational egoism frames debates about whether rational action must maximize the agent's own good.
- Egoist arguments feature in discussions of cooperation, sacrifice, business conduct and obligations to others.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of egoism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Confusing psychological egoism, a descriptive thesis about motivation, with ethical egoism, a normative thesis about conduct.
- Making psychological egoism unfalsifiable by redefining every satisfied desire as evidence of self-interest.
- Treating the satisfaction produced by helping someone as proof that personal satisfaction was the ultimate motive.
- Equating self-interest with immediate pleasure or material gain, although egoist theories can emphasize long-term welfare.
- Assuming economic models of self-interested choice establish either universal psychological egoism or the moral correctness of egoism.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of egoism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Altruism - Altruism gives another's welfare an ultimate motivational or normative role; egoism gives that role to the agent's own interest.
- Egotism - Egotism concerns exaggerated self-importance or self-preoccupation; egoism concerns the role of self-interest in motivation, morality or rationality.
- Hedonism - Hedonism privileges pleasure; egoism privileges the agent's own good, which need not be defined as pleasure.
- Individualism - Individualism emphasizes the individual's standing, independence or explanatory importance without necessarily making self-interest the sole ultimate consideration.
- Utilitarianism - Utilitarianism evaluates actions or rules by their consequences for overall welfare; ethical egoism gives determining weight to the agent's own welfare.
- Selfishness - Selfishness ordinarily describes excessive concern for oneself at others' expense; egoism is a theoretical position that can endorse cooperation and concern for others on self-interested grounds.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of egoism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which philosophical or colloquial sense did the registry intend, given the missing definition?
- Which primary formulations should anchor the psychological, ethical and rational variants, and where do their authors reject these labels?
- Should qualified priority for self-interest remain inside this entry or be related to egoism as a neighboring position?
- How should traditions that challenge ordinary boundaries of the self be represented without assuming a conventional welfare-based account of egoism?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own this concept, requiring a registry link instead of a separate publication?