"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values." -Ayn Rand
I recently read this quote and was wondering what everyone thought about it. Do you all agree that happiness is the only moral purpose of life, or is there something else? Do you believe Machiavelli or Aristotle would agree or disagree with this quote?
I think that everything we do we try to contribute to our own happiness. Though this sounds egocentric of us, I think it is true. Even when we do things for other people and we try to make them happy, we are in sense making ourselves happy because we are becoming a better person in the process.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Aristotle would agree with this quote because happiness is so closely tied into our values. We talked about in class how Values come from perfecting aspects of life, and we are generally happy when we are able to excel in certain areas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connor here on this one. He's right that when we do things for other people, it still makes us feel better about ourselves even if we intend only to focus on the people who need our help. Humans subconsciously want only what is best for ourselves and the people we really care about so that we can assure our own happiness in our lives. While Rand says that the achievement of our happiness is the main purpose of life, I would argue that it is one of a few main purposes, along with being well and living well in your own eyes.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Connor and Lucas. I am a RUIBAL Leader this year and something we talked about was whether or not we would want to see charity or justice given. Some people chose justice- they would rather see a deeper change in the way things are than just giving money or time. Others chose charity-they wanted to see changes made right away and see the impact that they are making on whoever they are helping. I think this goes along with the idea that the "achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life," as Rand states, because although people volunteer for things or donate money, they are doing this to feel better about themselves and to see the difference they are making. They want to see the changes made so they can feel they helped implement those changes and feel happier about their “purpose”.
ReplyDeleteThe quote is a little open-ended, since one's happiness can mean simply Aristotle's life of gratification, although Rand also disqualifies "mindless self-indulgence". But she also excludes pain, which means that she identifies happiness with pleasure, albeit not some kind of simple bodily pleasure.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, it seems flatly false to say that only our own happiness is the only moral purpose. It may be, as Elizabeth says, that our happiness involves charity and other altruistic types of acts, and therefore Rand is still right. But our culture, at least on its face, esteems moral action directed towards others (although it does not reward it, like it does self-interest).
In a greater sense it seems false, however, in that it seems oblivious to the social character of human existence. And this is the problem with libertarianism in general, it seems. It seems to ignore the fact that we live with others, that we choose to live with others, and that we desperately need others, and most importantly, that those social relations are not costs in relations to our happiness, but enabling conditions of that happiness.
Robinson Crusoe was only happiness when he believed himself worthy of God's grace. Otherwise, he was miserable.
I've believed Ayn Rand to always get a bad reputation as people mistake her works as an excuse to be selfish. However by taking a closer look at this quotation, it seems Rand is bringing up an important distinction of what is considered "achievement of your happiness". First, one must already have a set value system to determine what is worth pursuing in life. Only by sticking to this criteria can a person become happy according to Rand. Therefore, any outlying action is a complete waste of time and effort. Moral integrity may not be the same moral integrity we believe one would mean (life of a christian), but just the persistence in following one's self-interest. We can only hope that by living in communities, humans would create societal value systems that benefit everyone. So acting in one's own self-interest is also in the interest of the group. The last point I want to address is the argument that whenever someone does a charitable act, they are actually acting in their own self-interest (possibly for others' improved opinion of them or possibly a debt owed back to them in the future). I definitely see some truth in that. It has always made me feel weird when pictures are taken at Villanova Day of Service and posted all over the school's website. It almost looks as if the school is just trying to proclaim how charitable we are compared to others. Yet Mother Teresa said "If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway." I can't deny that our service days help many people who would otherwise have not gotten it, so there's no reason to question our motives when it comes to something so beneficial to those in need.
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