I’ve been chipping away at some Rand books this term, though I’ve taken a one month break from Atlas Shrugged. I like the story, but it sure is long. I just needed a break.

The one I’m reading now on my lunch breaks is The Virtue of Selfishness, a non-fiction collection of essays on ethics, philosophy and morals. While I find parts of it to be repetitive (which is sort of expected for stand alone essays and lectures on similar subject matter), there are interesting topics on rights, collectivized ethics, and various questions posed about objectivist theory. The articles were written in the early 60’s and some parts need to be taken with a grain of salt such as this passage from Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice discussing morality and self-esteem implying homosexuality is a mental illness due to being “insufficiently hypocritical” on the practice of “traditional morality”:

“Or the adolescent who flees into homosexuality beacause he has been taught that sex is evil and that women are to be worshipped, but not desired?”

I guess I should note that Rand’s “selfishness” is in the strictest sense of “concern for one’s own interests” and not that of the commonly used word with negative connotations. The cornerstone of Objectivism is rational self-interest without force (noting that “without force” is critical). My favourite essay so far in the collection is The Ethics of Emergencies, which discusses aid of others. The last paragraph sums up the ideas well:

“The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his own happiness. This does not mean that he is indifferent to all men, that human life is of no value to him and that he has no reason to help others in an emergency. But it does mean that he does not subordinate his life to the welfare of others, that he does not sacrifice himself to their needs, that the relief of their suffering is not his primary concern, that any help he gives is an exception, not a rule, an act of generosity, not of moral duty, that it is marginal and incidental - as disasters are marginal and incidental in the course of human existance - and that values, not disasters, are the goal, the first concern and the motive power of his life.”

The act of helping others is based on your love for them (which also determines who and how much help you give) as well as your respect for human life. It should not be based on altruist morality that forces you to sacrifice.

Currently Listening to: Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield

Random Wikipedia Article: Special Handling Unit