I thought about what you said here, and as a disciple of Ayn you ought to be ashamed. ALL morals and principles which we live by are ultimately selfish (I think), because by hewing to them we shape the world into what we would like it to be, and discourage that which we find obnoxious, or dangerous, or ugly.
There is virtue in selfishness, but we may argue forever on what virtues of selfishness lead to the best world. You and I, for example, would never agree on the virtues in the selfishness of promoting children's health via the government. I want to do that, because I selfishly wish children to be healthier, so that my children will grow up in a better world. Presumably you disagree with that because you selfishly have your own ideas about how doing what I want to do would lead to a less agreeable world, and so on. So, I submit that all of us, and all our actions are selfish- it's one of the things I think Ayn got right, and it fits in neatly with biology, which too, is "selfish". It doesn't solve any arguments to say that we're all selfish, but it makes calling someone selfish remarkably silly, imo, of course. |
