rational selfishness

English

Noun

rational selfishness (uncountable)

1. (philosophy) Objectivist position that, in order to promote one's own life, the morally proper beneficiary of one's own rational actions should be oneself.
   • 1961, Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics”, in The Virtue of Selfishness, Penguin Group:

     The Objectivist ethics proudly advocates and upholds rational selfishness—which means: the values required for man’s survival qua man—...

2. The conviction that it is moral to act for one's own good and that this is rationally in line with a greater good.
   • 1870, Francis A Walker, An Oration at the Soldiers' Monument Dedication in North Brookfield, Goddard & Nye.

     [Society] has arranged all its parts and offices on the principle that a rational selfishness is the best preservative of peace, and the most efficient agent of progress; ...

Synonyms

• rational egoism