The Objectivist Ethics - 2

(Originally written June 28, 2006 in Book 3)

The Objectivist Ethics
Ayn Rand

Consciousness is the means for survival for beings that possess it. Man, although he has consciousness must rely on reason to survive.

"Man cannot survive, as animals do, by the guidance of mere precepts" (Rand, 21).

Linehan - Then man is not an animal, if man be not an animal, he could not have evolved from an animal. How can a being evolve from something and not be it anymore? It surely cannot. If a single-celled organism evolves into a two-celled organism it is a collection of cells, but remains a celled organism. If man then has evolved from apes, which are animals then man too would be an animal. But if man needs more than precepts to survive (the survival that animals require) then he cannot be an animal and therefore cannot have evolved from them. [This is weak argumentation]

The thought process which man needs for survival is not automatic, instinctive, or infallible.

Linehan - Ms. Rand, are there no instinctive thoughts or innate ideas?

Man has no automatic knowledge, therefore no automatic values. Therefore man does not have an automatic knowledge of good or evil.

"Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history" (Rand, 22).

The science of ethics is the pursuit of the right goals and values for the survival of man. Man needs a code of ethics to survive.

"Ethics is not a mystic fantasy - nor a social convention - nor a dispensable subjective luxury, to be switched or discarded in any emergency. 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" (Rand, 23).

Man must choose to view his life as valuable and choose to accept a code of values, which is, via the act of choosing, a moral code.

The judging of good and evil requires a standard to judge against. For the objectivist ethics the standard is man's life or 'that which is required for man's survival qua man'.

Reason is man's basic survival tool and with the standard of good and evil being life, then that which is "proper to the life of a rational being is good; that which negates, opposes or destroys it is evil" (Rand, 23).

Everything man needs must be discovered and then produced. Therefore, the two essential to survival are 1) thinking and 2) productive work.

Mental parasites are men, who chose not to think and only imitate others to survive. "They are the men who march into the abyss, trailing after any destroyer who promises them to assume the responsibility they evade: the responsibility of being conscious" (Rand, 23).

Men who survive by force steal and loot from men who are surviving via the two essentials. They are parasites who attempt to survive by animal methodology. But just as animals cannot survive via plant methodology, man cannot survive via animal methodology.

Animals live lifes in cyclical form; whereas man's life is a continuous stream of interrelated events.

Man, if he wishes to survive, must choose his values, course, methods, goals, etc. based on a lifetime and not from moment to moment due to the interconnectivity of life.

The choice of these based on a lifetime cannot come from instincts, precepts or sensations; they only come from the rational processes of the mind.

"Man's survival qua man means terms, methods, conditions and goods required for the survival of a rational being through the whole of his lifespan" (Rand, 24).

Man can exist subhuman as history proves. But he cannot succeed as such. Ethics teach subhuman brutes how to live like men.

"The objectivist ethics holds man's life as the standard of value - and his own life  as the ethical purpose of every individual man" (Rand, 25).

Standard - an abstract principle that serves as a measurement or gauge to guide a man's choices in the achievement of a concrete specific purpose.

Linehan - If ethics are objective and not subjective they must be universal. Therefore there can only be a universal standard and a universal specific purpose for all men. No man can have a unique purpose, therefore a man's life can have nothing to do with objectivist ethics.

Value - that which one acts to gain/and or keep

Virtue - the act by which one gains or keeps it.

The ultimate value in objectivist ethics is one's own life.

3 Cardinal values of objectivist ethics
1) Reason
2) Purpose
3) Self-Esteem

3 Corresponding virtues
1) Rationality
2) Productiveness
3) Pride

"Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man's life... reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work and pride is the result".

Rationality is the basic virtue of man and the source of all other man's virtues. Man's basic vice is un-focusing his mind. It is the source of all evil.

"The virtue of rationality means the recognition and acceptance of reason as one's only source of knowledge, one's only judge of values and one's only guide to action" (Rand, 25).

The virtue of independence - the acceptance of framing one's own judgments and living by the work of one's own mind.

The virtue of integrity - never sacrificing one's convictions to the opinions or wishes of others.

The virtue of honesty - never faking reality

The virtue of justice - never seeking or granting the unearned and undeserved, neither in matter nor in spirit

One must reject any form of mysticism, any claim to non-sensory sources, any claim to non-rational sources, any claim to non-definable sources and any claim to supernatural sources of knowledge.

The virtue of productiveness - the recognition of productive work as being the sustainer of man's life and the freedom to adjust his background to his desire.

Productive work draws man's finest and highest characteristics -
1) Creativity
2) Ambition
3) Self-Assertion
4) a refusal to bear uncontested disasters
5) "dedication to the goal of reshaping the earth in the image of his values" (Rand, 26).

Productive work is a chosen pursuit of a rational endeavor, great or modest. Regardless of the scale of his work, the fullest and most purposeful usage of his mind constitutes productive work.

Linehan - But, how are we to know that one is pursuing a fullest usage of one's mind. If it is truly objective it must be measured on the scale of accomplishment. Otherwise it is pure subjectivism poorly masked as objectivist ethics.

The virtue of pride - "that as man must produce the physical values he needs to sustain his life, so he must acquire the values of character that make his life worth sustaining - that as man is being of self-made wealth, so he is a being of self - made soul" (Rand, 27).

This is idolatry at its worse. Beware the gods that are men; as they are unfit to be worshiped, save in their own heats and minds.

Pride is moral ambitiousness.

"One must earn the right to hold oneself as one's own highest value by achieving one's own moral perfection" (Rand, 27).

Pride is earned by never placing any concern, wish, fear or mood of the moment above the reality of one's own self-esteem. Pride is the rejection of being a sacrificial animal. Pride rejects anything that upholds self-immolation as being moral. Pride rejects God and Christ and Christianity.