ABSTRACT
An entire view of human beings and the nature of the motivations to which they are most susceptible is implicit in Comte’s remark, and it is a view which would find resonance with many people. At its simplest, the thought would be that egoistic concerns loom larger for us than altruistic ones, that rooted in our dispositions is a propensity to favour our own individual interests over those of others. As stated, that looks like a thesis about human psychology, but it is a thesis which fairly transparently calls out for philosophical elaboration and evaluation.
