In [its] most general form, Predominant Egoism says that self-interested motives tend to take precedence over non-self-interested motives in determining human actions. That is, non-self-interested motives usually give way to self-interested motives when there is a conflict. As a result, we may say that human action in general is predominantly motivated by self-interest.

This idea can be spelled out more precisely as the conjunction of four propositions:

1. For most people in most situations, the “altruistic gain/personal loss” ratio needed to reliably motivate self-sacrificing action is large.

2. The number of people for whom altruism and other non-self-interested motives normally override self-interested motives is small.

3. The number of situations, for the average person, in which non-self-interested motives override personal interest is small.

4. The scope of altruistic motives that are strong enough to normally override self-interest is, for most people, small, that is, confined to concern for family, close friends, close associates, or particular groups or public projects to which the individual is devoted.

Proposition 1 recognizes that most people are sometimes willing to make genuine sacrifices to produce gains for others, but it contends that this occurs frequently only in cases in which the net sacrifices required are quite small, compared to the benefits produced. Propositions 2-4 spell out the sense in which it is “usual” for self-interest to take precedence over other motives—it does so for most all people most always, except when the well-being of close associates or relations is involved.

(Gregory S. Kavka, Hobbesian Moral and Political Theory [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986], 64-5 [italics in original; footnotes omitted])