Ethical Egoism as an ethical theory that was created by Johann Schmidt(1806-1856), who used the alias Max Stirner when publishing his works. Stirner was born in Berlin and was not widely regarded as a particularly well-known philosopher in his time. It is only in recent years that his ethical theory has gained more attention and more support. He arguably is philosophy's Van Gogh. Van Gogh famously only sold two paintings during his life span, yet now is widely regarded as one of the great conceptual painters. This ethical theory Stirner believed could be easily implemented into society due to that he believed it was how humans were designed to function within a society. To understand ethical egoism one needs to understand some other terms to do with egoism itself.
Psychological egoism is the scientific view that all human beings are born with selfish intent at heart and we are programmed to prioritise ourselves above anything else. For example, the "fight or flight" instinct isn't the "defend or protect" instinct or the "rescue or preserve" instinct, we are programmed to protect and prioritise ourselves. In this way, surely the best society would be one where we always acted instinctively and lived in a way that suited our natural psychological state.
Another concept one has to come to terms with is the concept of conditional egoism. It is the view that, if we act with self-interest(not to be confused with selfishness), it will benefit society. This is true as by trying to improve our own economic situation, we improve the economic situation of the company we work for. In doing this we will improve the amount of money this company is able to spend and therefore improve the quality of the resources they are purchasing. In doing this we are producing more money, which gives us the opportunity to tackle bigger issues such as poverty and discrimination. So conditional egoism means that, by acting with self-interest as our number one priority, we directly solve the problems of everyone. In this way, arguably "selfish actions" lead to "selfless" end goals.
Now we have understand conditional and psychological egoism, we can begin to understand ethical egoism. Before learning anything about an ethical theory, we need to learn the end goal. Stirner stated in his book "The Ego and Its Own" that the goal of ethical egoism was to create a Union of Egoists. While the word "union" may sound like an exclusive club it is actually the word that Stirner uses to describe his society. He would organise society on egoist principle and in doing this the "Union of Egoists" would be created.
The main focus of ethical egoism, other than the creation of a Union of Egoists, is long term goals. Max Stirner believed that our personal focus in life should be to discover our Einzig, which is a word best translated into our own-ness. To discover our Einzig we need to accept the fact that ourself is unique and find the thing that truly drives us. In doing this we should better ourselves and motivate others around us, whilst only focusing on ourself. Stirner argues, whilst we may try, acting altruistically, is humanly impossible as we will always have some underlying self-interest. For example, if we try to think of an action that seems entirely selfless, such as giving to charity, we can always find some underlying selfish reason behind that. In giving to charity we are supposedly seeming to take away from ourself and give to someone else, nothing could be more selfless than that, right? Wrong! In giving to charity we do so to fuel our own ego that we are a good person and to hide from our own guilt. In giving to charity, we aim to impress our friends and those around us, in order that they may think we are a better person. In giving to charity, perhaps we aim to make our annual incomings seem that much smaller, so we have to pay that much less tax. In this way, even the kindest of actions can seem downright selfish.
Now we have discovered that it is truly impossible, if you are not the son of God, to act altruistically, we need to learn how we should act, if not selflessly. Stirner believed that the future of the self is to discover our Einzig, which Stirner described as the thing that we were put on this earth to achieve. Whether that be a marathon runner, or an office receptionist, we all have that yearning inside our soul to achieve something. Yet in our current society there are always things holding us back, such as government systems, parental restrictions, societal expectations. However, in Stirner's society, you act in your own self-interest, to achieve what you have that yearning to achieve. Stirner believed that, to achieve this, we must detach ourselves emotionally that society draw us to such as "religion, society or laws". While this may seem drastic, if everyone adhears to it, we may gain progress in all things wordly rapidly. Whether that is a good thing is up for debate. Stirner, to prevent the selfish from looking for monetary gain said that we should reject monetary gain as greed is not a true part of our own-ness. Stirner believed that society would become eudaimonic if everyone acted in this way, and lead to Stirner's utopia of a "Union of Egoists".
"Well, that was simple, seems like there are no problems with that", said no one. There are many fallbacks, and despite the scientific fact of psychological egoism, there is absolutely no way to guarantee that all of human society will chase their long-term goals, rather than settling for monetary gain and becoming one of Aristotle's "pleasure seekers". Aristotle said that "the utter servility of the masses comes out in their preference for a bovine existence" and that unfortunately is the main fallback of ethical egoism. Due to the fact that humans find it fair easier to listen to the limbick in their head telling them to sit down relax, and not put any form of hard-work in is the main issue with ethical egoism. Also the wafer-thin line between self-interest and selfishness means that most people will interpret this new "Union of Egoists" as the purge. This is because nearly all form of order that can be seen today is rooted in "religion, society and laws" which are three things that Stirner tells us to reject. Some may say that, in rejecting laws, Stirner is encouraging theft. The new zealand born Annette Baier said that ethical egoism is "self-centred, inconsiderate, unfeeling, unprincipled and ruthless", which are all adjectives which would be suitable to describe the purge.
We know humans are deeply flawed, therefore, perhaps creating a society based on the way that humans are designed to function is not a particularly great idea. Whilst achieving altruism is impossible, perhaps we should strive for perfection rather than attempting to create a society that would inevitably lead to chaos. Ethical egoisms appeal is that it taps into the human psyche, however, perhaps that is not something that we want to tap into, as humans have already caused enough damage by prioritising ourselves. Maybe, if Stirner could see the state that the earth was in right now, he would not be so keen on trying to put ourselves first. Now is a time more than ever act as selflessly as possible and to try and put the world and others first. Despite ethical egoism being designed for the world, maybe the world isn't designed for ethical egoism.
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