Ethical Egoism

Dancingjebus3

Hi I am doing a dissertation for my final year of my degree and my topic is on egoism, I am wondering if anyone else has done much research on this topic and if so what do you advice reading and not reading. My proposed topic looks as so " I propose to discuss the issue of egoism but in particular to look at the question of whether ethical egoism is ethical or not? In doing so I will start by looking at egoism and the similar branches that stem from egoism such as rational egoism and show how that compares to ethical egoism. This will then lead me onto looking into the three different areas that ethical egoism can be broken up into, these being the individual, the personal and the universal. After I have discussed this I will then begin to look into other branches of ethics which come into conflict with this egoism, one of which I will be looking at will be Altruism and how it with compares against egoism, then furthermore to see how it can be contrasted to utilitarianism, in that they will be two Agent focused subjects which will be contrasted against a single subject that is agent neutral.
I will then go onto to explain how the role of ethics is applied to the world today and the way in which ethical egoism ether does or does not fit into society at present, with a look into what alternatives of ethics that could substitute or complement egoism today.
Philosophers which I plan to study in relation to this topic are Max Stirner and Thomas Hobbes with also looking into other philosophers which have influenced and others who have been influenced by the works of these writers."


If anyone has any criticisms on how I suggest my layout to be or if anyone knows of writers who have written more extensively on this topic please let me know, all suggestions and criticisms welcome.

Joe1919

You might be interested in this website which has some stuff on Max Stirner
http://www.nonserviam.com/magazine/

I wrote a short essay once on Psychological Egoism and used the following references.

David Hume criticism of egoism 'An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Appendix II'

Darwin, Decent of Man, Chapter V (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/dscmn10.txt)

Joel Feinberg, 'Psychological Egoism', Russ Shafer- Landau, Ethical Theory, An Anthology

Kavka, Gregory S: 'The Reconciliation Project, Russ Shafer- Landau, Ethical Theory, An Anthology, (Oxford 2007),
, (Oxford 2007),

Don't forget Ayn Rand's defence of egoism.

Joe1919

PS
An interesting transcendentalist poet that was possibly influenced by Stirner was Walt Whitman. 1819-1892

Song of Myself

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1900.html
http://books.google.ie/books?id=tSst64ugVFQC&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=whitman+egoism&source=bl&ots=0BJAKE9QP7&sig=hrIFDriXN2m-MLujc5vFDUYYEz0&hl=en&ei=CyeDS8n8BIii0gSpkPS1BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CBkQ6AEwCA