What question did this study set out to answer?

The central aim is to examine the concept of 'Student Egoism' and its implications for ethics education.

May 7, 2026Open Access

The problem of student egoism and its implications for ethics education

Key Points

The central aim is to examine the concept of 'Student Egoism' and its implications for ethics education.
Elaboration on egoism as a philosophical concept
Discussion on the pedagogical significance of Student Egoism
Identification of strategies to address Student Egoism
Student Egoism is identified as a potentially widespread phenomenon in educational contexts.
The paper outlines three essential criteria for successfully addressing Student Egoism in ethics education.
A specific strategy to manage Student Egoism is proposed, though details are sketched rather than fully developed.

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss egoistic preconceptions among students – a phenomenon that I will dub ‘Student Egoism’ (SE) – as a potential challenge to successful ethics education. While the prevalence of this phenomenon is occasionally mentioned in the philosophical literature, there has been no systematic discussion of its pedagogical significance to date. The aim of this paper is to initiate such a discussion. To achieve this, I will first elaborate on egoism as a philosophical position in some detail in order to develop a more comprehensive account of SE. Against this background, I will argue that there are indeed good reasons to consider SE (i) a potentially widespread phenomenon that (ii) could have problematic implications for ethics education. Based on this, I will then identify three general desiderata that any successful strategy of dealing with SE has to fulfill and sketch one specific strategy in a little more detail

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Cite This Study

Dominik Balg (Mon,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69fc2ba98b49bacb8b347a7b https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-026-00244-9

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