An Excellent Collection of Essays on Objectivism

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	• The Virtue of Selfishness Ayn Rand Signet, 1964 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 123 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

How Selfish

I find myself again reviewing a book by Ayn Rand that I quite liked. I am not a philosophy major so I won't be arguing about the soundness of her metaphysics or epistemology. I will simply say that while I don't agree with everything she has to say (few would) she makes very interesting observations. Her essay on the concept of human rights as a way to subjugate rulers to moral law is spot on. Her definition of sacrifice is also more logical than another one proposed in another review. Her idea that capitalism is the only free economic system borders on tautological and her support of property rights is a rarity amongst modern "thinkers". Again, while I don't support everything she said (I am still debating the idea of absolute morality, as if morality was something we can discover like the laws of physics) I think she makes strong arguments for personal freedom and the proper relation between a government and its governed.

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A treasure

I have an emotional connection to this book, and by consequence to Rand, because it is Rand's work that motivated me into becoming a full-fledged libertarian. Rand, in it, offers a wonderful collection of essays, and in particular a theory of individual rights rooted in Aristotlean ethics. Were more people to read this chef d'oeuvre by Ms Rand, they would rid themselves of any ignorance on what she actually advocated (too many "critics" of Objectivism haven't the faintest idea.) Ms Rand was, in my opinion, too averse to reading and understanding her intellectual opponents and did not succeed in fully developing her system of philosophy, but she nonetheless provided the groundworks for future Objectivists (e.g. David Kelley) to build on. For anyone seriously interested in Ayn Rand and Objectivism, this is where to start.

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In True Ayn Rand Fashion

As with all her writing, she's very aggressive in trying to get her point across. Though this was a good read, I would not say that it was profound, as some of the other reviewers have so asserted.

It would serve as a good stepping stone into the field of more contemporary ethics, but in order to really assess her claims and axioms, one must be well learned and read in the enormous literature of classical and contemporary ethical theory--something I am not.

I didn't give this a 5 star review because quite frankly I disagreed with her on various points, points where it seems that her reasonings had committed some form of fallacy or other.

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An Excellent Collection of Essays on Objectivism

This book contains an excellent collection of essays on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and is appropriate for anyone seeking to obtain a deeper understanding of her philosophy beyond reading her novels. A few of the best essays contained within include:

* The Objectivist Ethics -- this is Ayn Rand's presentation of her ethics of rational egoism (i.e., rational self-interest).

* The Ethics of Emergencies -- this is where Ayn Rand discusses how her philosophy applies to many "lifeboat" situations.

* Man's Rights -- in this essay, Ayn Rand discusses what individual rights are and where they come from. Specifically, she argues that rights come from the nature of man (not from divine origin, society or law) and what they mean in practice.

* The Nature of Government -- this essay contains Ayn Rand's view on government's as an agency of force, how the only proper purpose for a government is to safeguard the rights of men, how the only legitimate functions of government are those necessary to preserve individual rights (i.e., police force, army and a court system) and the necessity for a strong, central government to serve as a final arbiter on the use of retaliatory force. This last point is in stark contrast to various anarcho-capitalists such as David Friedman and Murray Rothbard.

* Government Financing in a Free Society -- this essay discusses Ayn Rand's view that in a truly free society, all government financing should be voluntary. However, she does indicate that embracing a system based entirely on voluntary financing would be one of the last steps on transitioning to a truly free (i.e., laissez-faire capitalist) society.

* Racism -- in this essay, Ayn Rand eloquently argues how not only is racism immoral and stupid, but holding racist views is also bad for the holder.

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