Egoism Sentence Examples
As a matter of fact, however, egoism has been no less prominent in intuitional ethics.
It is with hedonistic and other empirical theories that egoism is generally associated.
His rivals saw how his intense personal ambition and egoism led him always to assume the chief place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation.
Another form of the word, "Egotism," is really interchangeable, though in ordinary language it is often used specially (and similarly "egoism," as in George Meredith's Egoist) to describe the habit of magnifying one's self and one's achievements, or regarding all things from a selfish point of view.
Egoism merely asserts that the self is all-important in the application of moral principles, and does not in any way supply the material of these principles.
Both of these are original and indispensable, but egoism has the priority, since there must be egoistic pleasure somewhere before there can be altruistic sympathy with it.
There was little or no sense of the danger of the legal principle, as related to human egoism and the instinct to seek salvation as a reward for merit.
The succeeding age was an age of unmitigated egoism, growing in which the old ideals were abandoned and the old corruption examples were forgotten.
Though no man was ever more free from anything like the egoism of the intellectual coxcomb, yet he abounded in that active self-confidence and self-assertion which is natural in men who are conscious of great powers, and strenuous in promoting great causes.
Its theoretical basis is the principle of egoism; while, for practically determining the particulars of duty it makes morality entirely dependent on positive law and institution.
AdvertisementIn his treatise on Eternal and Immutable Morality his main aim is to maintain the 1 In spite of Hobbes's uncompromising egoism, there is a noticeable discrepancy between his theory of the ends that men naturally seek and his standard for determining their natural rights.
But the quasi-theistic assumption that what is natural must be reasonable remained in the minds of Hobbes's most docile readers, and in combination with his thesis that egoism is natural, tended to produce results which were dangerous to social well-being.
Every efficient and wise government has at last the support of public opinion, whenever it opposes class egoism and class abuses.
Still this partial divorce of himself from the record of the social and scientific activity of his time, though it may save a thinker from the deplorable evils of dispersion, moral and intellectual, accounts in no small measure for the exaggerated egoism, and the absence of all feeling for reality, which marked Comte's later days.
Thus, on the whole, the impressive earnestness with which Clarke enforces the doctrine of rational morality only rendered more manifest the difficulty of establishing ethics on an independent philosophical basis; so long at least as the psychological egoism of Hobbes is not definitely assailed and overthrown.
AdvertisementIn his Inquiry concerning Virtue and Merit he begins by attacking the egoism of Hobbes, which, as we have seen, was not necessarily excluded by the doctrine of rational intuitions of duty.
Thus the notion of natural unregulated egoism turns out to be a psychological chimera.
But he does not seriously trouble himself to argue with egoism, or to weigh carefully the amount of happiness that might be generally attained by the satisfaction of egoistic propensities duly regulated; a supreme unquestioning self-devotion, in which all personal calculations are suppressed, is an essential feature of his moral ideal.
Thus, after a fashion, he is able to reconcile the conflicting claims of egoism and altruism and succeed where most apostles of evolution fail.
Neither egoism nor altruism can be made the sole basis of moral theory without mutilation of the facts, nor can any higher category be discovered by the aid of which their rival claims may be finally adjusted."
AdvertisementFor just as there is no self-realization which does not involve self-sacrifice, so there is no room for that species of egoism within the confines of morality which is incompatible with social service.
The egoism of the upper classes held military duty in contempt, while their avarice depopulated the countryside, whence the legions had drawn their recruits.
The egoism of Cond, who got himself made lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and bargained for freedom of worship for the Protestant nobility only, compTomised the future of both hi1 church and his party, though rendering possible the peace of AInboise,, concluded the iqth.
It was invented by Auguste Comte and adopted by the English positivists as a convenient antithesis to egoism.
The self-love theory of Hobbes, with its subtle perversions of the motives of ordinary humanity, led to a reaction which culminated in the utilitarianism of Bentham and the two Mills; but their theory, though superior to the extravagant egoism of Hobbes, had this main defect, according to Herbert Spencer, that it conceived the world as an aggregate of units, and was so far individualistic. Sir Leslie Stephen in his Science of Ethics insisted that the unit is the social organism, and therefore that the aim of moralists is not the "greatest happiness of the greatest number," but rather the "health of the organism."
AdvertisementThis a priori sense does not imply egoism and is not trivial.
Menger's rational egoism recognizes that value is grounded in human needs and their satisfaction.
Moreover, at one point, Stirner explicitly considers adopting the explanatory stance of psychological egoism only to reject it.
Could there be such a thing as ethical egoism?
But promoting democracy in the Middle East is not a matter of national egoism.
On the contrary, the needs of all are met by means of universal egoism.
Marx and Durkheim are obviously close, both hostile to Stirnerite egoism, even if Marx is in some respects a psychological egoist.
Batthyany, Szechenyi, Szemere, Eotvos, his rivals, saw how his intense personal ambition and egoism led him always to assume the chief place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation; but before his eloquence and energy all apprehensions were useless.
At the outset she felt some repugnance for the thin sallow-faced young officer, and was certainly terrified by his ardour and by the imperious egoism of his nature; but she consented to the union, especially when he received the promise of the command of the French army of Italy.
Unfortunately her brilliant and commanding qualities were vitiated by an inordinate pride and egoism, which exhibited themselves in an utter contempt for public opinion, and a prodigality utterly regardless of the necessities of the state.
The aim, both in public and private life, is to secure to the utmost possible extent the victory of the social feeling over self-love, or Altruism over Egoism.'
He conceives it as a state of social harmony so complete that in it even the antagonism between altruism and egoism will have been overcome.
The succeeding age was an age of unmitigated egoism, Growing in which the old ideals were abandoned and the old Corruption examples were forgotten.
Pure egoism and pure altruism are alike impracticable.
But Pitt's prodigious egoism, stimulated by the mischievous counsels of men of the stamp of Lord Shelburne, prevented the fusion of the only two sections of the Whig party that were at once able, enlightened and disinterested enough to carry on the government efficiently, to check the arbitrary temper of the king, and to command the confidence of the nation.