What's Wrong with Ayn Rand's Objectivist Ethics

"An engaging discussion and critique of Rand's metaethics and ethics. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Rand." —Jason Brennan (When All Else Fails, Against Democracy)

Ayn Rand bases her morality of selfish egoism on a flawed conception of value, argues Ari Armstrong in What’s Wrong with Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ethics. Values are not, as Rand has it, inherently oriented to an organism’s survival, either for people or for living things broadly. Rather, people experience certain things as ends in themselves and value some things (such as having and raising children) for reasons other than to advance their survival.

Although Rand and her advocates seek to make sense of the biology of values, the nature of human life, ends in themselves, happiness, and moral virtues, ultimately their efforts do not rescue Rand’s theory.

Further, Rand’s theory cannot adequately explain why a person should consistently respect others’ rights, avoid free riding, and engage civically. Armstrong, long an Objectivist before concluding that Rand’s moral theory has intractable problems, proposes an alternate way to conceive of a person’s ultimate value, one that recognizes many of Rand’s insights while making more room for the interests of others.

The book offers insights and challenges for those who are new to Rand’s ideas as well as to those who have long studied Rand’s philosophy. The work dives deeply into the literature on Rand’s moral theory, for those interested, with detailed notes and an extensive appendix exploring major works on the topic.

The book includes the following chapters:

1. Ayn Rand’s Selfishness
2. Reviewing the Objectivist Ethics
3. The Essential Fallacies of Rand’s Ethics
4. The Error in Rand’s Biology
5. Values, Life, and Death
6. Robots, Man Qua Man, and the Choice to Live
7. Egoism and Rights
8. Egoists, Free Riders, and Charity
9. Rethinking the Ultimate Value
Appendix: The Literature on Rand’s Moral Theory

Ari Armstrong is the author of Reclaiming Liberalism and Values of Harry Potter, and he publishes the Colorado Freedom Report. He has written for such publications as the Colorado Sun and the Objective Standard and appeared on television and radio programs including CNN, Denver’s 9News, and Devil’s Advocate. Ari was the recipient of the Modern Day Sam Adams award and the Independence Institute’s Vern Bickel Award for Grassroots Leadership, and he was a finalist for the Hoiles Prize for regional journalism. Please follow Ari’s work by joining his email list and social media feeds via AriArmstrong.com.