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Etisk egoism - en prövning av kritikenav Jan TullbergAbstractMany analyses of ethical egoism have the weakness of notdistinguishing between ethical egoism and egoism. There is a centraldifference between the thesis of the former, 'everybody should act inhis interest' and the thesis of egoism, 'everybody should act in myinterest' . There is no reason why an egoist, characterized byopportunistic behavior, should argue for a controversial theoryasethical egoism at any occasion when others have an adverse opinion.Ethical egoism should be treated as a theory actually suggested andnot as the assumed opinion of same opportunistic hypocrites. Ethicalegoism should be seen as a suggestion of rule egoism.There are many suggestions why ethical egoism should havefundamental flaws and the major content of thisarticle is to evaluatethe strength of these critiques. Do they have a killing bite? Selfcontradiction,incompatibility with human hope, coordinationproblem and inability to meet the Pareto optimality criterion aresame of the accusations. A major problem with much of the criticismis that it takes assumptions of agent neutrality as given. An ethicalegoist will not submit to that assumption and it is not a weIl justifiedcondition, but just an assumption deemed to be helpful for competingethical theories.A common and in my eyes the most reasonable objection is the one Iterm 'instrumentalist anti-egoism'. It is descriptively in line withmuch of the analysis of ethical egoism about the conditions in theworld, but sees ethics as a countervailing force. The mission of ethicsis to agitate against egoism by all possible reasons and arguments.However, I am skeptical also to that objection against ethical egoismand attribute higher value to honestyand realism in ethics.Furthermore, it is reasonable to think that ethical theories thatcondemn egoism have a stronger link to the opportunistic hypocriteeveryone condemns. Is not the best potential of exploitation to tellyour fellow man that his duty is to unselfishly serve his neighbor ­like the one now reminding him of his duties.II : 1