Individual motivations, emergent complexity and the just city: Is egoism one of the main problems of contemporary social-spatial realities, and altruism the principal antidote?

- Many say that egoistic individualism epitomises human interactivity in our cities and societies
- Substituting the presumed current focus on egoism with a new focus on altruism seems therefore to be the solution
- The article shows that the issue is more layered than this, due to the complex nature of contemporary cities and societies
- The entire discussion will consist of comparison with the true teachings of Adam Smith, which need to be reconsidered
- The intention is also to show that the tradition of classical liberalism was different from what is called neo-liberalism