Abstract: Altruism and egoism form the ethic foundation of motivation evaluation in the social welfare area. The welfare system design stressing altruism tends to reduce inequalities and that emphasizing egoism is inclined to display individual ability and maximize private wellbeing. Seen from the three theoretical sources of social welfare, viz. religious ethics, economics and social policy, egoism has dominated the social ideology for its harmony with capitalist liberal economy, while altruism, together with equality and justice, which is inherent to social welfare, has become an important factor that sustains social economy. So there is a longstanding dispute between altruism and egoism in social welfare ideology: whether the social welfare needs a mechanism of reward and punishment, whether the social welfare should have additional conditions, whether the social welfare should benefit all residents or only those in need, and whether the precondition for distribution between individuals and groups should be an atomic relationship or that of fellowship. These controversies also exist in Chinas current social welfare field. For the improvement of the social welfare system, an urgent task is to redefine its objectives and strengthen the motivation of collectivism and altruism so as to sustain the operation of the entire social system.

Key words: social welfare, altruism, egoism