Considering a New Egoism

In this paper, I argue for a new, descriptive egoism, called “expanded egoism,” as an alternative to psychological egoism and psychological altruism. The argument relies on a different conception of self that includes multiple people—an expanded self. Support for and acceptance of an expanded self comes from the presence of other conceptions of self from psychological, sociological, and eastern (Vedānta and Buddhist) literature. Expanded egoism resolves problems found in psychological egoism and psychological altruism, and implications of a normative version of expanded egoism are briefly considered.