ABSTRACT
Self-realizationist theories are among the classical attempts to develop a comprehensive normative ethical theory. Plato and Aristotle, in giving classical statements of such theories, argue that a man's distinctive happiness, a man's distinctive flourishing, will only be realized when he realizes himself, that is, when he achieves to the fullest possible degree his distinctive function. More generally, and apart from Plato's and Aristotle's particular formulations, the ultimate moral ideal should be to attain the fullest degree of self-realization. Self-realization can be so construed that it is tied to acting on reasons or for the sake of reasons, in which case it need not be a way to enhance human happiness to the fullest extent. In a way that has been too little noticed, self-realizationist theories suffer the same central defect from which so-called ethical egoism suffers.
