Ayn Rand’s essays in a book titled The Virtue of Selfishness are thought provoking on the issues of ethics and are a continuation of the discourse on what actions should be considered as moral or amoral as performed by human beings. The traditional ethicists have always viewed self-interest with suspicion with most of the ethicist praising acts that are selfless in intent while viewing actions motivated by self-interest as amoral acts. According to the traditional view of ethics, a self-centered individual does not deliberate the wellbeing of other people and, therefore, will damage the interest of others while he is pursuing their own interests. Rand’s views of self-interest are however the exact opposite of the traditional ethicists view. She proposes that when self-interest is properly understood, it becomes the right standard of morality while selflessness is in itself the deepest immorality. This essay is an examination of the Any Rand’s views of selfishness as compared to the societal views. For the purposes of this essay, I agree with Rand that selfishness is moral and disagree with the society’s view of selfishness.
Rand views the popular usage of the term “selfishness “ by the society as synonymous with evil which in literal terms means a murderous brute trampling over piles of corpses to achieve their own end (Rand 6). He sees the traditional definition of selfishness as an act by evil people pursuing gratification of their whims of the immediate moment. For her, the correct dictionary meaning of selfishness is being concerned with one’s own interest. In her concept of selfishness, what constitutes evil and good is actually their own interest when they are performing their actions. Rand believes that the human elements of self-interest are objective. By this she means that human beings have objective biological as well as psychological needs which make their own actual interest to be referenced to those needs (Rand 5). These needs are rational and the interaction of people with the society should be through a firm commitment to the virtues of benevolence, justice, productiveness and rationality. The commitment to the above virtues precludes brutish behavior.
Rand views self-interest as the ability of a person to view oneself as the end. This is to mean that a person’s own life as well as contentment are the uppermost values that they should strive to attain. She argues that a person does not exist to be a slave or a servant of the interest of others or their own interest. Their own happiness and life is their ultimate end and while pursuing self-interest, a person must be aware of the self-responsibility that this goal carries with it (Rand 13). It is the responsibility of that person to sustain and enhance this goal so that they can achieve these values. Rand further observes that the moral values of individuals are genetically reliant on the way living things exist as well as function. Rand, consequently, determines that self-centeredness is a right moral or ethical value in life as each organism is concerned with the good of their life. Selfishness, she says, serves to direct actions of an organism thus eliminating the possibility that such actions will be aimed at destroying the life of that organism.
She, therefore, makes a recommendation that the best way through which a good society can be built is by allowing human beings to act freely like in capitalist view of the economy where people are more concerned with their own individual human rights and freedoms. To free human beings from constant conflicts of having always to sacrifice their own rights and freedoms, Rand suggest that people should be allowed to express their own feelings and preferences as they are not in conflict with the good of other members of the society. Instead of people paying much attention to altruism which suggest that an action is moral when it has benefits of the good of others and any action taken for one’s own benefits as evil, she observes that the correct view of evaluating the moral value of an action should be based on the individual as the beneficiary of their own action. When this criteria of viewing evil and good is adopted in the society, people are able to manifest and lead healthy, fulfilling and purposeful life (Rand 8). This is because such people are able to guard their own lives and actions using their own interest and character.
Works Cited
Rand, Ayn. The virtue of selfishness. Penguin, 1964. Print.
