The ancient philosopher who argued that selfishness is the key to a stable society

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Yang Zhu, a forgotten giant of the Warring States period, proposed a radical ethical egoism. He argued that if every individual simply minded their own business and refused to harm others, the world would govern itself. His philosophy, once feared as a social contagion, remains a provocative challenge to collectivism.

Yang Zhu, active between 440 and 360 BC, founded the school of Yangism, a philosophy that stood in stark opposition to the prevailing Confucian and Mohist doctrines of his time. While Mencius famously condemned Yang's ideas as 'floods and wild animals' that threatened the social order, Yang's core principle was surprisingly simple: self-preservation. He famously refused to pluck a single hair from his own body to benefit the world, not out of malice, but because he believed such self-impairment was futile and external to one's true nature.

The mechanism of Yang's thought relies on the idea that society exists for the sake of the individual, rather than the individual existing for the sake of society. He taught that by avoiding both the desire to take from others and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for empty praise or national interests, one could achieve a state of natural contentment. This perspective, often labeled as egoism or hedonism by his detractors, was actually a strategy for survival in a turbulent, decadent era. By prioritizing the spiritual self and the integrity of the body, Yang sought to navigate a world defined by conflict and artificial social constraints.

Yang Zhu’s outlook was deeply colored by a sense of fatalism regarding the brevity of human life. He argued that since a long life is rare and mostly consumed by infancy, old age, sleep, and suffering, one should focus on living fully in the present rather than chasing posthumous glory or adhering to rigid social rituals. He viewed death as a natural process, dismissing the value of elaborate funeral ceremonies. Instead, he advocated for the pursuit of happiness and the protection of personal interests as the most rational path, suggesting that a world of self-contained individuals would naturally find harmony without the need for coercive governance or performative benevolence.

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