No way! Hi! I’m Antonio and I read a lot of philosophy. NO WAY! Hi! I’m Amanda and I don’t like to read philosophy except for the existence of God debates. NO WAY! Hi! I’m Michael and I like the God debates. Out of everything in this class I like Plato the best. NO WAY! I’m Neil and I’m in a platonic relationship which sucks.

Ayn Rand ( ) Agenda 1.Bio/Obj Ethics/Selfishness (5m) 2.Mike Wallace interview (20m) 3.Collectivists Ethics (group reading) (20-30m) 4.Harrison Bergeron (movie) (30m 5.Discussion of topics (30m)

Life Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter Born and educated in Russia Wrote fiction as a child and was determined to become a writer Witnessed the Bolshevik revolution (1917) University of Petrograd: studied philosophy and history (graduated in 1924) Came to US in 1926 where she pursued screenwriting in Hollywood.

Life in the beginning she sold her first screenplay, “Red Pawn,” to Universal Pictures in 1932 and saw her first stage play, Night of January 16th, produced in Hollywood and then on Broadway. Her first novel, We the Living, was completed in 1934 and published in 1936; it was the most autobiographical of her novels based on her years under Soviet tyranny.

Writing history FICTION: Night of January 16th (1934) We the Living (1936) Anthem (1938) The Fountainhead (1943) Atlas Shrugged (1957) NON-FICTION WORKS: For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (1961) The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism (1964) Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971) Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1979). Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982).

Followers of Ayn Rand Alan Greenspan Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Ryan (R)US Congressman for Wisconsin Ted Turner Media Mogul Mitch Daniels Former Indiana Governor and university president Clarence Thomas Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ann Coulter Columnist, writer, and pundit

Objectivism 1.Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears. 1.Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival. 2.Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life. 3.The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church. (

Fiction and Philosophy “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.” ― John Rogers

Altruism Altruism is the ethical principle that the values of others should be placed before one’s own. It is the opposite of egoism. Objectivism rejects as immoral any action taken for some other ultimate purpose other than one's life. In particular it rejects as immoral any variant of altruism — any ethical doctrine according to which a human being must justify his or her existence by service to others. Followed consistently, altruism leads to certain death, since each man must achieve certain values in order to remain alive. (

Howard Roark Speech, The Fountainhead “The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality -- the man who lives to serve others -- is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit. The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man, and he degrades the conception of love. But that is the essence of altruism.”

Virtue of Selfishness Why does man need a code of values? Is the concept of good and evil an arbitrary human convention? Is ethics a subjective luxury –or an objective necessity?

The standard of good is measured today as that which is good for society, not man himself. “An organism’s life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is good, that which threatens it is the evil” (VOS, p.17) “Man has no automatic code of survival” (VOS, p.19) “Nothing is given to man on earth except a potential and the material on which to actualize it” (VOS, p.22) “Ethics is an objective, metaphysical necessity of man’s survival—not by the grace of the supernatural nor of your neighbors nor of your whims, but by the grace of reality and the nature of life” (VOS, p.23)

Moral cannibalism The moral cannibalism of all hedonist and altruist doctrines lies in the premise that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another” (VOS, p.30) Note: Capitalism is the advantage one gains at the disadvantage or loss of another. To capitalize on the misfortune of another. One man’s gain necessitates another man’s loss, right?

The role of government “The only proper, moral purpose of a 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 “ (VOS, p.33)

Capitalism “A pure system of capitalism has never yet existed, not even in America; various degrees of government control had been undercutting and distorting it from the start. Capitalism is not the system of the past; it is the system of the future—if mankind is to have a future” VOS, p.33)

Next… Mike Wallace interview Collectivized Ethics (reading) Harrison Bergeron (movie)

Collectivized Ethics Read and make notes. Can you find examples of today’s socio- political situation that is comparable to Rand’s examples and thoughts? Be ready to discuss

Discussion topics WARM-UP example: Let them not eat cake! (1) Taxes as immoral (2) No good Samaritans here: The case of the drowning child (3) Sacrifice vs selfishness (e.g., The Purge) (4) Special Education/ADA (5) Rand Paul and the 1964 Civil Rights act.