Virtues vital for an individual's well-being: rationality, honesty, independence, justice, integrity, productiveness, and pride.

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Product Description

Ayn Rand is well known for advocating egoism, but the substance of that egoism�s instruction is rarely understood. Far from representing the rejection of morality, selfishness, in Rand�s view, actually demands the practice of a systematic code of ethics. This book explains the fundamental virtues that Rand considers vital for a person to achieve his objective well-being: rationality, honesty, independence, justice, integrity, productiveness, and pride. Tara Smith examines what each of these virtues consists in, why it is a virtue, and what it demands of a person in practice.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1509432 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 328 pages

Review
"...a strongly written addition to the scholarly literature on Ayn Rand's philosophy...belongs in every college and university library, and on the shelves of philosophers interested in Rand's views and current trends in the ethics literature." --Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford College: Philosophy in Review

About the Author
Tara Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of Moral Rights and Political Freedom and Valuable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality, and has contributed to Journal of Philosophy, American Philosophical Quarterly, Social Philosophy and Policy, and Law and Philosophy.

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Customer Reviews

an important work, well worth every penny and minute
Noting how recent scholarly work in ethics dances around the edges of seriously grappling with egoism, Dr. Smith offers the invitation: Why not judge ethical egoism by squarely confronting it in its most powerful and consistent form? Thus her comprehensive, systematic presentation of Ayn Rand's ethics. This book is particularly welcome because important elements of Rand's ethical thought are scattered among her novels and various essays, with further illumination sprinkled in her journals, her live Q&A, and reflected in works by her leading and longtime students (primarily Dr. Leonard Peikoff). Smith draws all of this together into a single, clear, carefully organized presentation, judiciously employing comparison and contrast with contemporary academic thought to clarify distinctions and to highlight the novel and powerful aspects of Rand's ideas.

Smith's presentation is masterful, executed with clarity, power, and finesse. Yet it is accessible, and she maintains a warm, reflective style throughout that is grounded in the realities of human life. While following along as Smith unwinds the major virtues Rand identified, what makes them virtues, and what they demand of us in action, you may find that you can't help but consider the implications regarding your own behavior -- the character you are shaping by your everyday choices and actions -- the course you are charting in your own life. This is a solid academic work, but it is also the deepest sort of practical self-help book, implicitly encouraging people to get real and seriously consider what it means to live as a human can and should.

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Regarding Steve Jackson's review: Smith was clear about her mission of presenting RAND'S ethical ideas, and doing so certainly doesn't entail a survey of all fully-, semi-, non-, and anti-Objectivist thought regarding Rand's ethics. That would be a different book, and Mr. Jackson denying Smith's achievement here by leading people to confuse her purpose with his own is unjust. Smith took on a worthy and substantive project, and she absolutely knocked the ball out of the park.

Definitive Work on Clarifying Rational Egoism
This book should be next on your reading list if you want an in-depth and rigorous study of Ayn Rand's ethics of Rational Egoism beyond what you can glean from reading Ayn Rand's novels and non-fiction essays. First of all, although this book is philosophically rigorous, it is highly readable. Personally speaking, I thought reading this book was a pleasure.

This book offers a detailed understanding of the Objectivist principles of *how* one should be moral. The first chapter is a useful introduction to what virtues are and what one can expect to gain from reading this book. The second chapter is a brief overview of Ayn Rand's answer to *why* one should be moral and hence, is a summary of Tara Smith's book "Viable Values". The third chapter goes into great detail on rationality, which is the primary virtue according to Objectivist ethics. The next six chapters are each devoted to one of the six secondary virtues of Objectivist ethics, which are: Honesty, Independence, Integrity, Justice, Pride and Productivity.

The last chapter should also be of great value to those who enjoy reading beyond the lines. In this chapter, Dr. Smith evaluates four other qualities which are commonly held to be virtues: Charity, Generosity, Kindness and Temperance, according to Objectivist principles. Although Dr. Smith indicates that these qualities are not inherently bad according to Objectivist principles, she nevertheless correctly concludes that since Objectivism holds one's own life as the standard of value, these qualities cannot properly be considered virtues according to Objectivist principles.

Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone seeking a more thorough understanding of the philosophy of Ayn Rand!

Good source for understanding ethics from Rand's view
As an Objectivist, I often come to an ethical problem that I'm not quite sure how to handle. If I feel one way or the other about the issue, I do it according to my own belief system. But there have been a few times when I wondered what the "official" Randian view on the subject was. Sometimes it's hard to find that answer. So I was pleased to find this book.

The writing is a disappointment. Of course, one can't expect really good writing from a book published by a university or written by a professor. Using $12.00 words when a nickel word would be more useful and make for a better read is merely showing off. But this is what one gets when one buys a Cambridge book.

At any rate, I find the ethics of Rand quite interesting. People often think Objectivists are totally uncaring, selfish people. This is far from true. The entire belief system is based on the fact that Objectivists think their first duty (if you opt to use that word) is to be happy --- not at the expense of others but for yourself alone. It is not a belief system of self-sacrifice for the good of the whole. It is a system to be cherished by the true individualist. For this reason, I recommend this book as a good place to compare your ethics with Rand's. Or, should you question your own belief on a certain problem and you care to know the Rand position, you can find it in this book.

Rand was not, as many people believe, a true conservative. The far right Republican hates her. Nor was she a leftist. She was, by our terms today, a libertarian. Within the label "libertarian" there are those who are right, left and middle. I'm not sure where you would place Rand on that scale. But her ethics stand strong today and are well worth understanding.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson