ABSTRACT
Yet the triviality into which the human nature debate can descend conceals the rich ambiguity inherent in the presumption of egoism. This presumption is actually twofold. For our conviction in it draws its sustenance from two distinct sources that lend the concept of egoism two correspondingly different sets of associations. Though this distinction usually goes unrecognized by those of all stripes, it provides the opening through which the presumption of egoism may be scrutinized.
