Introduction
Many people term others as selfish ‘when one says that he does not give a damn about you’ people take this person as being individualistic. Ayn in his book the fountain head, she deeply discusses ethical egoism. She describes ethical egoism as an idea which will not promote self-centeredness at the expense of others, but it is a coherent idea where the individual's prospects and values transpire through the person hard work. These individuals dream and values do not come true through lies or intimidation but just ways. She says that the life’s primary goal is individual happiness and in egoism is where one achieves his aspirations by rational means. (Meyer, 2014). In this paper, we will discuss some of the principles of Ayn on ethical egoism
Ayns Arguments on Ethical Egoism
One of her arguments is on values she says that the values are not intrinsic or subjective rather they are objective. The values are objective and are dependent on the nature of the valuing being as well as the surrounding. The being values are resolute by what is required for the survival of this entity whereby ethics is one of the necessary things for the survival of human beings. She adds that values are directly related to the notion of life. (Meyer, 2014)
For instance, an immortal robot is not affected by anything and just acts as well as moves from one place to another. The robot cannot be damaged nor injured by anything hence; one cannot change it in any way. This entity cannot have the meaning of values since it does not have the sense of life thus the notion of life is related to values.
Ayn adds that the survival of human being s is to sustain a certain individual’s life. The life that the man ought to maintain is a life of dedication to the Supreme Being, the common good as well as the surrounding. One needs to do things for the common good as well as the surrounding because the good get back to you. (Khawaja, 2014).
Ethical egoism involves the rational ideas of achievement of one goal and to achieve them one must do it to others. For instance, if one becomes dishonest to a friend when the friend knows it she will, in turn, become dishonest hence affecting one's dreams. Ayn also says that the need for the molarity or values is read out by our human being nature. Our nature as a human being is to think as well as produce to survive. As such as one chooses, to live for long, he must take molarity as an important entity even on a desert island. (McBrayer,2014).
Therefore, in an instance of suicide even when one does it irresponsibly according to her argument then it is not wrong. It is because the long-term survival is a choice hence if one chooses not to live he or she ought not to be moral. It is because to live one has to be moral and is living is a choice. When one looks at her argument, even the suicidal bombs that caused death to lots of people is not wrong as molarity is for long-term survival.
Conclusion
Finally, I support some of Ayn's principle such as ethical egoism is for the benefit of one self. One has first to do things for his own advantage as the meaning of life is his one own happiness. However, I differ on the issue of the robot since some real robots may be affected by their failure to perform their duties well. Their failure may be their actions or inactions hence one can attribute them to have values.
Works Cited:
Drake, J. R. (2016). Asking for Facebook logins: An egoist case for privacy. . Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), 429-441.
Khawaja, I. (2014). Randian egoism: Time to get high. . Reason Papers, , 36(1), 211-223.
McBrayer, J. P. (2014). Introducing Ethics: A Critical Thinking Approach with Readings. . Oxford University Press.
Meyer, J. (2014). Younkins, Edward W. Flourishing and Happiness in a Free Society: Toward a Synthesis of Aristotelianism, Austrian Economics, and Ayn Rand's Objectivism. . Reason Papers, , 36(1), 188-195.
