Is communitarian thinking altruistic?

Tuija Takala¹, Matti Häyry²

¹University of Manchester and University of Helsinki

²Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to expose the problematic nature of claims concerning the altruistic or egoistic foundations of popular theories of political philosophy. Altruism and egoism are complex psychological and ethical concepts, which cannot be straightforwardly employed to defend or to attack equally complex doctrines like communitarianism and liberalism.