4 ms·

Have you read The Virtue of Selfishness? I thought she did a decent job in justifying the first principles. Considering that a lot of philosophers rely upon c

Have you read The Virtue of Selfishness? I thought she did a decent job in justifying the first principles. Considering that a lot of philosophers rely upon concepts like God, I think Rand's is a lot better developed than people give it credit for. Rand's notion that humans have brains like animals have claws, and that brains are useful b/c they allow us reasoning, thus reasoning is good (to humans) like claws are good (to an animal)... I think that's a fairly persuasive claim, unless you would argue that human self-deception is more valuable than objectivity...

yummyfajitas 16y ago
My point is that there are limits to the power of reason, which I never felt that Rand acknowledged. I freely admit that I only read her two major works (Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead). I would grant that you are correct that reasoning is a utilitarian good (for humans) just as claws are a utilitiarian good (for tigers), but it does not follow from this that reason can derive a notion of moral good.
- grandalf 16y ago
  Good point. I agree that her argument is not the strongest there, but I can't imagine another one that could be any more persuasive, especially if it involved the supernatural or tradition as many do.
- dk 16y ago
  I don't recall how she treated the fundamental questions of ethics in Atlas Shrugged but you might find her 'The Objectivist Ethics' interesting (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand_the_objectivist_ethics http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand...). Here she presents her ideas on ethics fairly systematically, starting with questions like why man needs a code of ethics, what are values, and why does man need them.
mike_organon 16y ago
That's close, but you have to bring in the idea that the ultimate choice is life or death. Life (each individual's) is the standard of value and the starting point from which morality is derived. As long as someone chooses to continue to live (most of us do), they need to use the best means - that is, they should use reason, etc.

yummyfajitas 16y ago

My point is that there are limits to the power of reason, which I never felt that Rand acknowledged. I freely admit that I only read her two major works (Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead). I would grant that you are correct that reasoning is a utilitarian good (for humans) just as claws are a utilitiarian good (for tigers), but it does not follow from this that reason can derive a notion of moral good.

grandalf 16y ago
Good point. I agree that her argument is not the strongest there, but I can't imagine another one that could be any more persuasive, especially if it involved the supernatural or tradition as many do.
dk 16y ago
I don't recall how she treated the fundamental questions of ethics in Atlas Shrugged but you might find her 'The Objectivist Ethics' interesting (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand_the_objectivist_ethics http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand...). Here she presents her ideas on ethics fairly systematically, starting with questions like why man needs a code of ethics, what are values, and why does man need them.

mike_organon 16y ago

That's close, but you have to bring in the idea that the ultimate choice is life or death. Life (each individual's) is the standard of value and the starting point from which morality is derived. As long as someone chooses to continue to live (most of us do), they need to use the best means - that is, they should use reason, etc.