Excerpt from Article:
Moral Environment
Ayn Rand’s The Ethics of Emergencies speaks about the importance of selfishness or self-interest. Although “selfishness” may appear negative in the beginning, Rand’s description makes a large amount of sense. Rand speaks regarding selfishness like a rational method in which a person sets his or her hierarchy of values and lives in respect to those principles in order to accomplish the moral purpose of life: one’s very own happiness.
Overview of The Values of Disasters
According to Ayn Rand’s The Values of Disasters, the meaning purpose of a lot more to achieve a person’s own pleasure. Describing her belief in Objectivism in 1962, Rand stated, “Man – every single man – is an end in himself, not really the way to the ends of others. He must exist intended for his individual sake, none sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing other folks to himself. The pursuit of his very own rational self-interest and of his own pleasure is the maximum moral reason for his life” (Rand, Presenting Objectivism, 2012). Rand rejects “altruism, ” which can be understood to be “unselfish concern” (Dictionary. com LLC, 2012), and believes that the moral basis pertaining to altruism is a “malevolent universe” metaphysics. “Malevolent universe” metaphysics, which Seite also rejects, holds that “man, by simply his incredibly nature, can be helpless and doomed – that success, joy, achievement happen to be impossible to him – that disasters, disasters, perturbation are the norm of his life which his major goal is always to combat them” (Peikoff, 2012). According to Rand, provided the meaningful purpose of achieving one’s personal happiness, sacrifice is neither morally needed nor admirable. The realistic principle of conduct to adhere to this meaning purpose should be to always work in accordance with the hierarchy of the values. Flanke believes that the virtue named “selfishness” requires: “(a) a hierarchy of values established by the standards of one’s self-interest, and (b) the refusal to sacrifice a higher worth to a reduce one or to a nonvalue” (Rand, 1964, s. 55).
Using Rand’s Suggestions to Today’s Meaning Environment
We might tend to think of “selfishness” like a strictly bad thing. Applying Rand’s tips to today’s meaning environment, this first shows up that Seite is sharing with us to “live and let die”: strive only for ourself and let others fail, drain and die. Sometimes that could be true, with respect to the hierarchy we have set in accordance to our personal
