ABSTRACT
Justice and humanity are at bottom not primarily directed to others, but are well thought out egoism. Every kind of altruism, even love, friendship, self-sacrifice, is a disguised egoism. And every egoistic theory which is based upon it is equally a forced abstraction. An "organ" for perceiving the phenomena of another's consciousness is indeed a highly metaphysical assumption. The fundamental phenomenon of "I and Thou" separates, and at the same time binds, men. Unity and separateness are correlative to each other. But their correlation is different from the epistemological correlation of subject and object. It is ultimately this fundamental relationship of "I and Thou" which makes it impossible theoretically to separate egoism and altruism. These tendencies in man are just as elementally joined, just as correlative, as the persons in the relationship itself.
