Metaethics, egoism, and virtue: studies in Ayn Rand's normative theory

Abstract

Philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand (1905 1982) is a cultural phenomenon. Her books have sold more than 25 million copies, and countless individuals speak of her writings as having significantly influenced their lives. In spite of popular interest in her ideas, or perhaps because of it, Rand s work has until recently received little serious attention from academics. Though best known among philosophers for her strong support of egoism in ethics and capitalism in politics, there is an increasingly widespread awareness of both range and systematic character of Rand s philosophic thought. This new series, developed in conjunction with Ayn Rand Society, an affiliated group of American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, seeks a fuller scholarly understanding of this highly original and influential thinker.The first volume starts not with metaphysical and epistemological fundamentals of Rand s thought, but with central aspects of her ethical theory. Though her endorsement of ethical egoism is well-known one of her most familiar essay collections is Virtue of Selfishness the character of her egoism is not. The chapters in this volume address basis of her egoism in a virtue-centered normative ethics; her account of how moral norms in general are themselves based on a fundamental choice by an agent to value his own life; and how her own approach to foundations of ethics is to be compared and contrasted with familiar approaches in analytic ethical tradition. Philosophers interested in objectivity of value, in way ethical theory is (and is not) virtue-based, and in acquiring a serious understanding of an egoistic moral theory worthy of attention will find much to consider in this volume, which includes critical responses to several of its main essays.