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Self and Others

A Study of Ethical Egoism

  • Book
  • © 1988

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jan Österberg

    1. Uppsala University, Sweden

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Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 196)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages iii-xi
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  2. Introduction

    1. Introduction

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 1-8

  3. Preliminary Matters

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9
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    2. A Short History of Ethical Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 11-34

    3. Kinds of Ethical Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 35-48

    4. The Interpretation of Strong Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 49-68

  4. The Debate on Ethical Egoism

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69
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    2. Arguments for Ethical Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 71-79

    3. Normative and Semantic Objections

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 80-99

    4. Pragmatic and Other Objections

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 100-122

  5. The Assessment of Ethical Egoism

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123
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    2. The Strong Form of Ethical Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 125-140

    3. Weak Forms of Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 141-155

    4. Ethical Egoism and Rationality

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 156-174

  6. A Last Resort

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175
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    2. Collective Egoism

      • Jan Österberg
      Pages 177-201

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 251-272
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Keywords

About this book

1. The Aim of This Essay Ethical Egoism, the doctrine that, roughly speaking, one should promote one's own good, has been a live issue since the very beginnings of moral philosophy. Historically, it is the most widely held normative theory, and, next to Utilitarianism, it is the most intensely debated one. What is at stake in this debate is a fundamental question of ethics: 'Is there any reason, except self-interest, for considering the interests of other people?' The ethical egoist answers No to this question, thus rejecting the received conception of morality. Is Ethical Egoism an acceptable position? There are many forms of Ethical Egoism, and each may be interpreted in several different ways. So the relevant question is rather, 'Is there an acceptable version of Ethical It is the main aim of this essay to answer this question. This Egoism?' means that I will be confronted with many other controversial questions, for example, 'What is a moral principle?', 'Is value objective or subjec­ tive?', 'What is the nature of the self?' For the acceptability of most ver­ sions of Ethical Egoism, it has been alleged, depends on what answers are given to questions such as these. (I will show that in some of these cases there is in fact no such dependence. ) It is, of course, impossible to ad­ equately discuss all these questions within the compass of my essay.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Uppsala University, Sweden

    Jan Österberg

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Self and Others

  • Book Subtitle: A Study of Ethical Egoism

  • Authors: Jan Österberg

  • Series Title: Synthese Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2879-4

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Kluwer Academic Publishers 1988

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-2648-3Published: 31 October 1988

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-7796-5Published: 06 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-2879-4Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0166-6991

  • Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 272

  • Topics: Ethics

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