How is egoism related to utilitarianism?
The main similarity between the two is that they are both usually hedonistic theories, ie. both concerned (solely) with pleasure and pain. The difference between the two, is whose interests (whose pleasure and pain) count when determining the rightness or wrongness of an action. An egoist would think that only the interests of the agent himself count, while the utilitarian would think that all interests count. So, for example, a utilitarian would believe it is wrong to do something that harms someone else, if the benefit (to the agent) is smaller than that harm. An egoist would think it always right to act in such a way as to benefit himself, even if this resulted in massive harms for everyone else. So an egoist would tend to agree with a utilitarian that, “what is good for an individual is that individual’s happiness”. But he would deny, “So what is good generally is happiness generally”. Under some definitions, being entirely self-centred, egoism actually fails to qualify as an “ethi
