 Further analysis of the feeling of the dependence leads Feuerbach to conclude that this feeling itself presupposes “egoism as the ultimate hidden ground of religion” (VWR 91–92/79). Here he reasons that, if human beings were not subject to powerful psychological drives which compel them to expand and develop their natural powers, including most fundamentally the drive-to-self-preservation, they would not experience the limitations imposed upon them by nature as painful and restricting. “Life is egoism” (EEWR 82) insofar as the fundamental drive of all living things, including the human organism, is the drive to self-preservation (Selbsterhaltungstrieb). Nevertheless, what Feuerbach calls “human egoism” doesn’t seem to be the same thing either as psychological egoism (the claim that everyone always acts from self-interest) or ethical egoism (the claim that “good” is whatever serves my own interests). Feuerbach writes that, by “human egoism” he means 