Self-interest: An Anthology of Philosophical Perspectives

Front Cover
Kelly Rogers
Psychology Press, 1997 - 293 pages

Self-Interest discusses the reconciliation of inevitable self-concern with its manifest potential for harm. This anthology brings together the efforts of twenty three renown philosophers to address the matter of how to bring about such a reconciliation. The drive for self-preservation, as observed by Aquinas, is the first law of nature. With this self-love, however, comes the threat of "the excessive love of self". Self-Interest brings into discussion the reconciliation of necessary self-concern with its manifest potential for harm.
This anthology brings together the work of twenty-three important philosophers to address the question of how to bring about such a reconciliation. Contributors include: Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Aquinas, Hobbes, Nicole, Mandeville, Butler, Hutchenson, Hume, Smith, Kant, Bentham, Mill, James, Nietzsche, Dewey, Rand, and Gauthier.

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Contents

CLASSICAL
5
Plato 427347 B C
13
Aristotle 384322 B C
23
Epicureanism
33
Stoicism
39
MEDIEVAL
47
Augustine of Hippo 354430
59
EARLY MODERN
75
Francis Hutcheson 16941746
129
David Hume 17111776
139
Adam Smith 17231790
149
Immanuel Kant 17241804
159
NINETEENTH CENTURY
169
TWENTIETH CENTURY
225
Ayn Rand 19051982
247
231
283

Bernard Mandeville c 16701733
105
Joseph Butler 16921752
121

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