Reddit reviews Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist
We found 3 Reddit comments about Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Reading the post, it looks like /u/abcdchop is confusing objective morality with intrinsic morality. Intrinsic morality is indeed "some fake ass shit." Plato was wrong, Augustine was wrong, Kant was wrong; there's no form of the Good, no god to mandate the Good, no noumenal self to determine the Good.
That doesn't mean that our actions can't have value. That's what Rand's morality is: an attempt to discover moral principles with reference only to reality, ignoring the supernatural roots of intrinsisism.
I understand being pissed about society trying to indoctrinate you with a bunch of arbitrary values. I feel the same way. A lot of society's values are crap, but there's a handful that will actually benefit your long-term well-being and happiness. Rand helped me do a much better job of sorting out the good ones from the bad and gave me some new ones. But all of her morality is "You should do this because it will benefit you personally." Here's a book if you're interested.
The justifications you are interested in have been concealed from you in the following books: They were first presented in her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology(1979) and were further expanded in Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand(1991).
Many contemporary Philosophers are continuing her work. Including Douglass B. Rassmusen, with his Groundwork for Rights
and Tara Smith with Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist.
The fact that you were previously unaware that this information existed does not discredit her Philosophy. That is what we call: The argument from personal incredulity.
http://www.amazon.com/Ayn-Rands-Normative-Ethics-Virtuous/dp/0521705460
http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/Virtues