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Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics
The Virtuous Egoist
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. Tracing Rand’s account of the
naturalistic ground of value and the harmony of human beings’ ratio-
nal interests, Tara Smith examines what each of these virtues consists
in, why it is a virtue, and what it demands of a person in practice. Along
the way, she addresses the status of several conventional virtues within
Rand’s theory, considering traits such as kindness, charity, generosity,
temperance, courage, forgiveness, and humility. Ayn Rand’s Normative
Ethics thus offers an in-depth exploration of several specific virtues
and an illuminating integration of these with the broader theory of
egoism.
Tara Smith is professor of philosophy at the University of Texas,
Austin. She is the author of Moral Rights and Political Freedom and
Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality, and
she has contributed to the Journal of Philosophy, American Philosophical
Quarterly, Social Philosophy and Policy, and Law and Philosophy.
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Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics
The Virtuous Egoist
TARA SMITH
University of Texas
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cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourn