Christine - Virtues Done

The Beauty of Selfishness According to Ayn Rand Christine Lewis Ph.D. Student in Educational Leadership College of Education Prairie View A&M University

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Professor and Faculty Mentor PhD Program in Educational Leadership Prairie View A&M University Member of the Texas A&M University System Visiting Lecturer (2005) Oxford Round Table University of Oxford England Distinguished Alumnus (2004) Central Washington University College of Education and Professional Studies

_______________________________________________________________________ _ABSTRACT Society view selfishness as a negative behavior. If one displays selfish behavior one is said to be mercenary, greedy, self-centered, and mean. Special focus will be on the novella The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand (1964). Convincing arguments will be used to show selfishness as a positive behavior. Focus will be on Rand’s philosophy, the most salient points will be argued, why ethical administrators need to be selfish. Human’s rights. Introduction Ayn Rand impose her philosophy of selfishness known as Objectivist ethics on the world in the late 1960’s. She saw selfishness as a valuable requirement for man’s survival “qua man” (p. 1) which means the values require for human survival not the values produced by the desires, the feeling , the whims or the needs of irrational brutes, who have never to grown the primordial practice of human sacrifices. Philosophy, including its metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical dimensions, precedes and determines politics which, in turn, precedes and determines economics. Rand bases her metaphysics on the idea that reality is objective and absolute. Epistemologically, the Rand’s view is that man's mind is competent to achieve objectively valid knowledge of that which exists. Rand's moral theory of self-interest is derived from man’s nature as a rational being and ends in him, recognizes man’s right to think and act according to his freely chosen principles, and reflects a man’s potential to be the best person he can be in the context of his fact.

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This leads to the notion of the complete separation of political power and economic power from government. The role of the government is, thus, to protect man’s natural rights through the use of force, but only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. Capitalism, the resulting economic system, is based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. For Rand, capitalism, the system of laissez-faire, is the only moral system Ayn Rand’s works have major impact on society, education and ethical administrators, her writings are very powerful and provocative. Purpose of the Article The purpose of this article is to discuss the positive aspects of selfishness and why ethical administrators need to display selfish behaviors. What ethical administrators can learn from Ayn Rand works? Human’s rights questions will be asked and answer to understand Rand’s philosophy of selfishness and the important of selfishness as it pertains to ethical administrators. The focus will be on the key areas: 1. The Ethical Philosophy of Ayn Rand (1964) according to The Virtue of Selfishness. 2. Why should ethical administrators be selfish? 3. What can ethical administrators learn from Ayn Rand works? 4. Human’s rights It is our belief that if ethical administrators adopted Ayn Rand’s philosophy in their life and careers they will be happier, more productive and successful. The Ethical Philosophy of Ayn Rand according to The Virtue of Selfishness The outspoken title of Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness captures the attention of many different people and sparks their interest on ethics. Typical ethics has been suspicious of self interest, praising acts that are selfless in intent and calling amoral or immoral acts that are motivated by self interest. A self-interested person, do not consider the interests of others and will slight or harm those interests in the pursuit of his or her own. Rand’s view is the exact opposite is true self-interest, properly understood, is the standard of morality and selflessness is the deepest immorality. Selfishness argued by Rand (1964), is to put one self first. Rand let it known that one’s own interest, success and happiness should be at the top of one’s list of importance and one does not exist as a servant or slave to the interests of others each person’s own life and happiness is his or her ultimate important. To live for his own sake means that the achievement of his own happiness is man’s highest moral purpose (Rand 1964, p.30). One’s life is his own he is responsibility to sustaining and enhancing it to the highest level of education. It is up to each person to determine the important of their lives and what is require being productive and successful one must come up with ways of achieving ones goals not waiting on others but finding ways and means of being productive.

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Virtues are principles people adopt, which is a trait of character that is to be admired, one such virtue is “rationality” acting in accordance with reasoning. Rand (1964) view “rationality” as self interest one must have reasoning when making effective decisions one must think the facts through first all behaviors has its consequences at the end. Virtues such as happiness give one a satisfactory feeling of achievement while for one to survive one has to be productive. For humans to be successful one has to work hard and achieve prosperity. One has to be true to oneself given that facts are facts and that one’s life depends on knowing and acting in accordance with the facts, being committed to awareness of the facts is the virtue of honesty. Independence and integrity are also core virtues for Rand’s account of self interest. Human must think and act by one’s own efforts and being committed to the policy of independent action is a virtue. One must have his own identify. One should live by his beliefs; a policy of being committed to acting on the basis of one’s beliefs is the virtue of integrity. Hypocrisy is a policy of self-destruction, according to Rand’s views one needs to stand by what he belief and not be forced to adopt some other beliefs. Justice is another core self-interested virtue Rand’s talked about meaning judging people, including oneself, according to their value and acting accordingly. The opposite of giving to people more or less than they deserve is injustice. The final virtue on Rand’s list of core virtues is pride, which is “moral ambitiousness,” in Rand’s words. This means being committed to making oneself the best one can be, of shaping one’s character and education to the highest level possible (Rand 1964. p. 30)It is by living the morality of self interest that one survives, flourishes, and achieves happiness. To Rand (1964) everyone does what they really want to do otherwise they would not do it. Rand in developing her theory the Objectivist ethics she criticized the ethics of altruism, which says that people should act out of selfish concern for others. Ayn Rand is strongly again that philosophy she said one should put one self first. In her book The Virtue of Selfishness Rand says that proper method of judging when one should help another person is by reference to one’s own rational self-interest and one’s own hierarchy of values. Why should administrators be Selfish? In accordance to Rand (1964) Virtues of Selfishness an organism’s life is its standard of value that which furthers its life is good, that which threatens it is the evil. Over-work, lack of sleep threatens an ethical administrator health, achieving a harmonious balance between their work responsibilities and your personal life requires that they become selfish. It’s about honoring the commitments you make to yourself; it’s about taking care of you in all aspects body, mind, and spirit. Without this attitude of self-care and nurturing, you are of no use to anyone not to yourself and certainly not to others. Always taking care of the needs of others, you’re denying them the opportunity to be responsible for themselves and their own success. Essentially, you’re enabling their inability to take care of themselves denying those opportunities to build self-confidence, self-esteem by taking on challenges and working through them.

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What can ethical administrators learn from Ayn Rand? Loving one’s self is a virtues it is good to put one’s well-being first. To aim for peace in one’s life is healthy. Selfishness can improve one’s healthy and prolong one’s life time it will avoid stressful moments and give happiness. Success and production will only be achieved if one is selfish. According to Rand more people take the existence of ethics for granted, form Rand’s works ethical administrators need to look at their philosophy and see if it is doing more harm than good. If your philosophy put people, work or family first then according to Rand you are a slave to society. Ethical administrators have to known when to say no if you do not have enough time to check in with yourself to determine what your needs are that is not good. The reason you are so swamped for time may be because you are living your life to please others. It’s time to stop being a people pleaser and start pleasing you. So next time before you say yes to another commitment, ask yourself, am I really excited about doing this or am I doing this because others think I should. Exercise your right to say “no”. Question ethical administrators need to ask him or herself is it moral right to help a person to do the things he can do for his self. Human’s Rights Rand (1964) argue that all humans have rights, “Rights are moral principles sanctioning a man's freedom of action in a social context.”(p.110) to live rationally by one's reason in society, man needs only one thing from his fellow men freedom of action. He requires rights to those actions necessary to support his own life, the most fundamental right being the right to life, from which all other rights, including the right to liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness derive. Freedom of action does not mean freedom to act by permission but freedom to act as one wants. Rights are not merely political principles, but they are principles that are between individual morality (ethics) and the moral principles governing society (politics). That is, the right to those actions necessary to support ones life so long as they do not violate the rights of others. Keep in mind that rights are not guarantees that those actions will always be successful. The right to pursue happiness does not necessarily mean achievement it only means one is free to pursue what one thinks will make one happy. Pursuit does not mean attainment, though it is a necessary precondition to attaining it. Similarly the right to life is the right to take those actions necessary to survive, free from the physical compulsion and interference of other men. The right to life does not mean that one can force others to support ones life against their will. Rand (1964) argue that “if some men are entitling by right to products of the work of other, it means that those are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor”. (p. 113). All humans be have the right to created happiness for them self and not seek happiness through others.

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Concluding Remarks In conclusion, Rand show us in her writing what it means to have a belief of your own. As an ethical administrator we have to have a set path to follow. Selfishness requires a deep commitment to self and absolute internal honesty. One must define the distinction between instant gratification and that which furthers the realization of longterm goals, objectives and aspirations. Once these differences are identified and incorporated into the process of choosing one’s actions, selfishness transforms from that which harms everyone involved into a way of life that benefits all parties. References Kritsonis, W. (2002).Williams Kritsonis, PHD on schooling. Mansfield OH: BookMaster, Incorporated. Merrill, R (2003). The Ideas of Ayn Rand. Chicago and La Salle: Illinois Rand, A. (1964). The Virtues of Selfishness. New York: Penguin Putnam.

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