Egoism
['egəʊɪz(ə)m;'iː-] or ['ɛɡoɪzəm]
Definition
(noun.) concern for your own interests and welfare.
(noun.) (ethics) the theory that the pursuit of your own welfare in the basis of morality.
Checker: Tanya--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The doctrine of certain extreme adherents or disciples of Descartes and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which finds all the elements of knowledge in the ego and the relations which it implies or provides for.
(n.) Excessive love and thought of self; the habit of regarding one's self as the center of every interest; selfishness; -- opposed to altruism.
Edited by Elise
Examples
- There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire: it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Most of the remainder of children's alleged native egoism is simply an egoism which runs counter to an adult's egoism. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The facts which are cited in support of the alleged pure egoism of children really show the intensity and directness with which they go to their mark. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- I tell you, you want love to administer to your egoism, to subserve you. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Selden felt an inner start; but it was only the last quiver of his egoism. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- The scratches are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent--of Miss Vincy, for example. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Typed by Justine