The concept of ethical egoism

Ethical Egoism is the ideology that an individual will act for their own self interest above all the rest or to strive and improve their own self being in relation to morality. This ideology can be applied to an individual’s daily life when determining what action sounds right to do that will also benefit the individual. At first, reading the word “ ethical egoism” gave me the impression that it would purely mean the right thing to do according to what you feel. Which is partly true, but it would be a shallow definition to the term, because there’s more to it.

Ethical egoism makes a person stop and ponder about actions before doing it physically. It’s not just about thinking of what’s the ethical thing to do for everyone, but to think of what is ethical and what a person can benefit out from it. You could ask yourself “ Would this benefit me?” “ What do I get out of this if I were to do this for a person?” “ How would this improve my situation?” whenever you’re making decisions before making actions. Like if you were to be asked by a neighbor if you could watch over their dog, you think about it for a minute to determine what you could benefit out from it. Well, doing this could improve your relationship with your neighbor which would mean you would have someone to go to when you need help, advice or maybe just some companionship. Another example would be if you were given money for your birthday to spend it on maybe an expensive, brand new gadget that just got announced by your favorite technology brand and you decide that you actually want to go on a vacation to another state instead because you realize the gadgets can wait and will even go down in price sooner or later anyway and going on a vacation sounds more fun which would bring more happiness and enjoyment to you. Sometimes ethical egoism can apply to acts that will indirectly benefit an individual.

Like if a person were to hold the door for a random stranger at some local restaurant, not one random passerby or customer would receive like a $20 Bill or receive an award or anything for simply holding the door; But small acts of kindness can go a long way. The reward or benefit from holding the door for a stranger, is to have other people to do the same to others, even the person who started doing it. The reward is to live in a place filled with kindness.