Self-Love, Egoism and the Selfish Hypothesis

Self-Love, Egoism and the Selfish Hypothesis Key Debates from Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy

Hardback (30 Apr 2019)

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Publisher's Synopsis

The dawn of the Enlightenment saw heated debates on self-love. Do people only act out of self-interest? Or is there a less pessimistic explanation for human behaviour? Maurer delves into the contributions to these debates from both famous and lesser known authors, including Lord Shaftesbury, Bernard Mandeville, Francis Hutcheson, Joseph Butler, Archibald Campbell, David Hume and Adam Smith, and puts them in their philosophical, theological and economic context. Maurer identifies five distinct conceptions of self-love and looks at their role within theories of human psychology and morality while drawing attention to the heuristic limits of our contemporary notion of egoism. He compares the central arguments and the different strategies intended to morally rehabilitate human nature and self-love before and during the Enlightenment.

Book information

ISBN: 9781474413374
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 126
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Weight: 506g
Height: 243mm
Width: 162mm
Spine width: 15mm