Objectivism 101

Lesson 4: Rational Ethics

Egoism as the rejection of sacrifice

Objectivist ethics is properly called "rational self-interest", because it proposes a rational approach to self-interest.

The terms "selfishness" and "egoism" are also used. However, they must not be confused with the common man's idea of the term, which would be - doing whatever we want without concern to others. The terms simply refer to the self/ego, which takes decisions for itself. Any form of ethics is by necessity individualist, since it is the individual that acts. No one can live for another. Objectivism only makes that fact explicit.

Because these terms are easy to misunderstand, they can hamper a study of the subject. But they must be understood on their own terms, not on how other people tend to understand the term. As Peikoff says in O:PAR (p234) :

Unfortunately (...), egoism has been advocated through the centuries mainly by subjectivists. The result is several corrupt versions of egoism, which most people now regard as the self-evident meaning of the concept. So I must keep stressing the fact that Objectivism upholds objectivity and therefore rejects all these versions. We reject the idea that egoism permits the evasion of principles. We reject the equation of egoism with irresponsibility, context-dropping, or whim-worship. We reject the notion that selfishness means "doing whatever you feel like doing". The fact that you feel like taking some action does not necessarily make it an action compatible with your "interests", in the legitimate sense of that term. There are countless examples of people who desire and pursue self-destructive courses of behavior.

In short, Objectivism does not see egoism as a "me-only" idea and altruism as a "others-only" idea. Rather, it shifts the distinction to a more fundamental issue : egoism is a "rational self-interest" idea while altruism is an "irrational self-interest" idea.

Here the difference between intent and knowledge is primordial. That everyone desires their self-interest does not imply that they always know how to act in their self-interest. Only by using reason can we consistently uphold our self-interest.
This is easy to understand if you remember that ethics is a form of knowledge. Although we all want to know the truth, we cannot know the truth automatically. Likewise, although we all want to see "the good", this cannot be done any which way.

Other ethical ideologies preach some form of sacrifice. Objectivism rejects the very notion of sacrifice emphatically, either our own sacrifice, or the sacrifice of others for us. A moral system is a guideline to live life fully, not to restrain it, which is the result of sacrifice. As Peikoff explains in O:PAR, Rand succinctly expressed this in Atlas Shrugged :

The best formulation of the Objectivist view in this issue is the oath taken by John Galt, the hero of Atlas Shrugged. "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." The principle embodied in this oath is that human sacrifice is evil no matter who its beneficiary is, whether you sacrifice yourself to others or others to yourself. Man — every man — is an end in himself.

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