February 6, 2023

Ethics: Who Needs it

By: Justin Tucker

Novelist, philosopher, and polemicist Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982) is known for her forceful moral defense of capitalism and harsh critique of collectivism. Her arguments are also very persuasive. In our present age, where the popularity of socialism is on the rise, those who believe in private property, voluntary transactions, and free markets can learn much from Rand because the ethical framework of her apologia is a large part of what makes her arguments so powerful.

A positive position on capitalism, her ideal economic-political system, was just one essence of her philosophy which she referred to as objectivism. This philosophy was developed in her works of fiction like Atlas Shrugged and non-fiction like Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Objectivism also takes positions on metaphysics and ethics, and these positions are interrelated and, per Rand, based in reason. Her book The Virtue of Selfishness, also a source of controversy, elaborates on objectivist ethics, which is elemental in her defense of capitalism.

In the book’s introduction, Rand responds to why she would use such an antagonistic word in her title. “For the reason that it makes you afraid of it,” she reveals. She wanted to shake the perception that selfishness is evil and that man is a brute without altruism to quell his alleged violent nature. She defines selfishness as: “concern with one’s own interest,” without a connotation to good or evil.

“The basic social principle of the Objectivist ethics,” she writes, “is that just as life is an end in himself, so every living being is an end in himself, not the means to the ends or the welfare of others –  and therefore, that man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. To live for his own sake means that the achievement of his own happiness is man’s highest moral purpose.” This is also known as rational self-interest.

She defines ethics as “a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life. Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering and defining such a code.” Rand felt that most ethics throughout history were derived from whims, mysticism, appeals to authority, and “what’s good for society”—all of which she considered irrational. So she tried to derive an ethical code from reason.

She defines a value as “that which one acts to gain and/or keep” which presupposes living entities. Since all living entities need to act to survive, their life is the standard of value. A man may feel the sensation of hunger, but he does not know how to hunt or gather his food, nor does he know what food is good for him. The man must then use his brain to think and retain knowledge as his means of sustaining his life. “Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man’s life, the central value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values. Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work – pride is the result,” she explains.

Why such an emphasis on reason? “Irrationality is the rejection of man’s means of survival and, therefore, a commitment to a course of blind destruction; that which is anti-mind, is anti-life,” she wrote.

Objectivist ethics also guide interactions between people. “The principle of trade is the only rational ethical principle for all human relationships, personal and social, private and public, spiritual and material. It is the principle of justice.” Trade is voluntary, mutually beneficial, and rewards achievement.

Objectivist ethics also have civic implications. “The basic political principle of the objectivist ethics is: no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. No man—or group or society or government—has the right to assume the role of criminal and initiate the use of physical compulsion against any man. Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.” Libertarians call this the non-aggression principle.

Rand continues: 

“The only proper, moral use of government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence – to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.”

Socialism and other forms of collectivism interfere with man’s pursuit of happiness, lead to tyranny, and disrupt the spontaneous order that arises from the free choices of self-interested individuals. Rand’s cogent capitalist apologetics are persuasive because they have an ethical underpinning that emphasizes the interests of the individual, where people are free to pursue happiness as long as they are peaceful. Her defense of capitalism is a powerful weapon in the intellectual arsenal against collectivism.