Distinction between 'egoist' and 'egotist'

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kindly help me understand the differences between an 'egoist' and 'egotist'. How an 'egoist', and an 'egotist' will behave in different situations.

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[nq:1]kindly help me understand the differences between an 'egoist' and'egotist'. How an 'egoist', and an 'egotist' will behave in different situations.[/nq]
Afaiaa, there is no difference other than spelling and pronunciation. The commoner adjective, however, is "egotistical".
Adrian

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[nq:2]kindly help me understand the differences between an 'egoist' and 'egotist'. How an 'egoist', and an 'egotist' will behave in different situations.[/nq]
[nq:1]Afaiaa, there is no difference other than spelling and pronunciation. The commoner adjective, however, is "egotistical".[/nq]
I think a case can be made for at least a slight difference. An "egoist" is a self-centered individual as is an "egotist," but the latter puts the situation into words.

Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/

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[nq:2]Afaiaa, there is no difference other than spelling and pronunciation. The commoner adjective, however, is "egotistical".[/nq]
[nq:1]I think a case can be made for at least a slight difference. An "egoist"is a self-centered individual as is an "egotist," but the latter puts the situation into words.[/nq]
There is one sense in which an "egoist" might not be an "egotist."

MWCD11 gives for one sense of "egoist" the following: "*1 :* a believer in egoism." For this philosophical meaning of the word "egoism" it gives the following: "*1 a :* a doctrine that individual self-interest is the actual motive of all conscious action *b :* a doctrine that individual self-interest is the valid end of all actions"
I fully expect that you could find people who are "egoists" in this sense whose behavior would not strike anyone as being egotistical. In fact, some of them would no doubt seem outright altruistic, since they would act on their altruistic feelings while nevertheless believing that the underlying motivation for those altruistic feelings is individual self-interest.

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]kindly help me understand the differences between an 'egoist' and 'egotist'. How an 'egoist', and an 'egotist' will behave in different situations.[/nq]
In situations where the terms might either apply, there is very little difference, if any.
It is convenient to restrict "egoism" to its original use, in philosophical contexts. There are two principal meanings for "egoism" (other than the sloppy use for "egotism"): the belief that nothing exists outside one's own mind (cf. "solipsism"), and the ethical theory that self-interest is the basis of morals.
If someone holds that self-interest is the basis of morals, he might be an egotist (someone excessively absorbed in oneself, conceited, or selfish), but he need not be. He may, for example, hold that self-interest includes the well-being of the community or of others within it.
Consider, for example, the Golden Rule: Love thy neighbor as thyself. The givenness here is that one loves oneself; the ethical rule is that one should extend that love to others. In itself, there is no explanation of the basis for that extension. It might (or might not) be appropriately part of an egoist philosophy.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]kindly help me understand the differences between an 'egoist' and 'egotist'. How an 'egoist', and an 'egotist' will behave in different situations.[/nq]
I believe "egotist" is the more-common and better-understood synonym.

"Egoist" has various meanings in philosophy, so using "egoist" where "egotist" will do will only confuse a well-read audience. It can mean a sort of ultra-Cartesian solipsism: the universe exists only as one knows and experiences it (oversimplified, if a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, not only does it not make a sound, it didn't even fall). In its more modern use in ethics, it refers to an adherent of egoism: the belief that people always do act (positivist, or psychological, egoism) or should act (normative, including rational and ethical, egoism) in what they see as their own interests.

Chris Green

Distinction between 'egoist' and 'egotist'

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