Enlightened self-interest

<a href="/facts/Age_of_Enlightenment/Uj2Fa8Mk">Enlightened</a> self-interest is a philosophy in <a href="/facts/Ethics/wNVNgL5q">ethics</a> which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong) ultimately serve their own <a href="/facts/Self-interest/kYgP6kaG">self-interest</a>.
It has often been simply expressed by the belief that an individual, group, or even a <a href="/facts/Business/For1e8Nh">commercial entity</a> will "do well by doing good".
The term enlightened self-interest has been criticized as a mere ideological or semantic device of neoclassical economic theory to justify this type of behavior. It has been considered at best a variant of self-interest that is unsuitable for the establishment of personal and public relations because - like the definition of self-interest in the standard rational-choice model - it fails to characterise human behaviour ethically, psychologically, and cognitively.

Enlightened self-interest open-in-new

Enlightened self-interest