Week 15 IT and Ethics

Ethical egoism is a term often used in the last years and it stands for philosophical and ethical position that establishes the fundamental priority of the someone's personal interests over any other interests, like public interests or the interests of other subjects.

 An "egoist" is often considered as a person who thinks only of himself and / or neglects the interests of other people, while supporters of "ethical egoism" usually argue that such neglect is simply unprofitable for the them for a number of reasons and, therefore, it is not selfishness (in the form of the priority of personal interests over any others), but only a inability to foresee consequences or even stupidity. Ethical egoism in the everyday sense is the ability to live by following your own interests, without contradicting the interests of others.

This concept emphasizes that corporate social responsibility is simply “good business” because it helps to reduce long-term profit losses. By implementing social programs, contributing to research or donating to charity the corporation reduces its current profits, but in the long term it creates a favorable social environment for its employees and also, contributes to good company's background, but at the same time creating conditions for the stability of its own profits. This concept fits into the theory of rational behavior of ethical egoism.

The essence of ethical egoism is in importance in economics to consider opportunity costs when doing business. If they are higher than theoretically could be, then it is failed, because you could, for example, invest your resources more profitably in another matter. The key word is profit. This is the basics for the economics and business.