Objectivism 101

14th Annual Summer Seminarof

The Objectivist Center

Diana Mertz Hsieh

Lecture Three: Life and Happiness

Tuesday, July 1, 2003

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Objectivism 101 Schedule1. Sunday Ayn Rand and Philosophy2. Monday Reality and Reason3. Tuesday Life and Happiness4. Wednesday The Virtues5. Thursday Individual Rights and Capitalism6. Friday Art as Spiritual Fuel

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Ethics• Ethics is the branch of philosophy defining the

values and virtues that guide choices and action.

• The central questions of ethics:• What should I pursue in life?• How should I pursue it?

• The What: A value is “that which one acts to gain and/or keep”

• The How: A virtue is “the act by which one gains and/or keeps [the value]”

• Is ethics amenable to rational demonstration?

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Why Do We Need Ethics?• The most fundamental questions of ethics: What are values?

Why does man need them?

• Values are “that which one acts to gain and/or keep”

• Values presuppose a “to whom?” and “for what?”

• All living creatures face a fundamental alternative of life versus death

• The sustenance of life requires constant action in accordance with the organism’s nature

• An organism’s life is its ultimate value

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Ayn Rand on Life and Value“Life can be kept in existence only by a constant

process of self-sustaining action. The goal of that action, the ultimate value which, to be kept, must be gained through every moment, is the organism’s life.

“An ultimate value is the final goal or end to which all lesser goals are the means—and it sets the standard by which all lesser goals are evaluated. An organism’s life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is the good, that which threatens it is the evil.”

— Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics”

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The Challenge for Humans• Non-conscious organisms (plants and lower animals)

“survive by means of their automatic physical functions”

• Non-rational organisms (higher animals) survive on the basis of perception, association, the pleasure/pain mechanism, learned skills, and so on

• Humans must use reason to discover how to sustain their lives in the short and long terms

• The life we pursue must be consonant with our distinct human needs, including those of the body and the mind

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The Nature of Happiness• “Happiness is that state of consciousness which

proceeds from the achievement of one’s values”

• “Happiness is the successful state of life, suffering is the warning signal of failure, of death”

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Life and Happiness“The maintenance of life and the pursuit of happiness

are not two separate issues. To hold one’s own life as one’s ultimate value and one’s own happiness as one’s highest purpose are two aspects of the same achievement. Existentially, the activity of pursuing rational goals is the activity of maintaining one’s life; psychologically, its result, reward and concomitant is an emotional state of happiness. It is by experiencing happiness that one lives ones life, in any hour, year or the whole of it. And when one experiences the kind of pure happiness that is an end in itself—the kind that makes one think: “This is worth living for”—what is greeting and affirming in emotional terms is the metaphysical fact that life is an end in itself.”

— Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics”

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From Life to Egoism• Life is the ultimate value and thus the standard of

value

• Happiness is the reward for a moral life and the purpose of life

• The Objectivist ethics is a form of egoism

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Self-Interest• We always ought to pursue our long-term self-interest

• How do we determine what is in our self-interest? What values and virtues will promote our life and happiness?

• Three answers:• Authority: “Follow the tried and true”• Emotion: “Do whatever makes you happy”• Reason: “Just the facts, ma’am”

• We ought to determine our values and virtues through a rational investigation of human nature and the world

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Values of Life and Happiness• Rational values are the things that act to gain

and/or keep consistent with life as ultimate value

• Material values• Food, shelter, medicine, wealth, water

• Spiritual values• Art, philosophy, self-confidence, knowledge, creativity

• Social values• Friendship, dissemination of knowledge, trade, love

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Virtues of Life and Happiness• Rational virtues are the characteristic means by

which we achieve values that promote life

• The eight major Objectivist virtues:• Rationality• Productiveness• Independence• Honesty• Justice• Benevolence• Integrity• Pride

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Moral Principles• We determine self-interest through reason

• Moral principles are general ethical truths

• We need moral principles in order to make ethical choices quickly and accurately

• Moral principles identify the long-range goals and means of achieving them that promote life and happiness in the usual circumstances of life

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Integration in Ethics• The Objectivist ethics unifies…

• The moral and the practical• Theory and practice• Reason and emotion

• More generally, Objectivism rejects the “mind-body dichotomy”

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Social Ethics• Social ethics concerns our interactions with other

people

• How should we interact with other people?

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The Necessity of Sacrifice?Option One• Sacrifice others to

yourself• “Might makes right”• Mastery over others• Egoism?!?

• Inherent conflicts of interest

Option Two• Sacrifice yourself to

others• “Service to others”• Servitude to others• Altruism

• Inherent conflicts of interest

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Option Three: Trade• Values (including wealth) can be created and

destroyed

• There are no necessary conflicts of interest for those who live by production and trade

• Trade is voluntary exchange to mutual benefit

• Trades can be material and/or spiritual

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The Ethic of the Trader“A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does

not give or take the undeserved. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange - an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment. A trader does not expect to be paid for his defaults, only for his achievements. He does not switch to others the burden of his failures, and he does not mortgage his life into bondage to the failures of others.”

— Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics”

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John Galt’s OathThe Oath of Galt’s Gulch: “I swear—by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

•In social ethics, Objectivism advocates…• Not sacrificing of others to oneself• Not sacrificing of oneself to others• But creating and trading values

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The Summary of Ethics“The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”

— Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

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Today’s Topics• Ethics• The purpose of ethics• Life as the ultimate value and standard of value• Happiness as the reward for a moral life and

purpose of life• Rational self-interest• Values, virtues, and moral principles• Integration (of mind and body) in ethics• Sacrifice versus production and trade