MacKinnon & Ayn Rand on Ethical Egoism

The philosophical position of ethical egoism as presented by Barbara MacKinnon and Ayn Rand, as a viable ethical theory. The plan of the research will be to set forth the principal elements associated with this philosophy and then to discuss the manner in which it is elaborated by Rand and, as appropriate, other commentators.

According to MacKinnon, ethical egoism is a normative theory derived from psychological egoism, which as that term implies refers to the motivations of self-interest embedded into individual consciousness. The normative aspect of ethical egoism arises to the degree it implies projection of an attitude toward the individual's status as a social being or the individual's relationship to the rest of the human community. Ethical egoism, MacKinnon says, can be considered in its individual or universal manifestations, with the former referring to one's intention to look out for one's own interests and be concerned with others only to the degree that such concern contributes to one's interests and the latter referring to the assertion that "everyone ought to look out for and seek only their own best interests . . . help[ing] others only when and to the extent that it is in their own best interests."1

MacKinnon develops the view that ethical egoism may be internally inconsistent, basically arguing that self-interested individual A who has disregard for others must expect other self-interested individuals B or C to have the same disregard for A, and raising

Related Essays

Catharine MacKinnon On Sex and Violence Catharine MacKinnon wrote the essay entitled "Sex and Violence." MacKinnon is a well-known feminist legal scholar who teaches at the University of Michigan and .... (1551 6 )

Pornography & Sexual Violence The purpose of this research is to examine the connection between pornography and sexual violence as articulated by Catherine MacKinnon and John Irving. .... (1611 6 )

Pornography .... In this context, Coughenour was defending her alliance with radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon in developing an anti-pornography ordinance for the city of .... (730 3 )

Essays on Ethics Theory & Contemporary Issues .... ethics stem from his observation that human beings are distinct from all other animals in their endowment with a "rational element" (Mackinnon 2001, 91). .... (2124 8 )

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE .... The views that will be examined are those presented in the works of four commentators: Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Catherine MacKinnon. .... (2035 8 )

ness in the renunciation of your happiness--to value the failure of your values--is an insolent negation of morality."10 Rand refers to the resulting "double-jointed, double-standard morality [that] splits you in half," continuing: Why is it moral to serve the happiness of others, but not your own? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but immoral when experienced by you? If the sensation of eating a cake is a value, why is it an immoral indulgence in your stomach, but a moral goal for you to achieve in the stomach of others? Why is it immoral for you to desire, but moral for others to do so? Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away? And if it is not moral for you to keep a value, why is it moral for others to accept it? If you are selfless and virtuous when you give it, are they not selfish and vicious when they take it? Does virtue consist of serving vice?11 Raised as queries against the positive social capital assigned to an ethos of communitarianism, ethical egoism does seem to pose a moral challenge to prevailing maxims of social preference. However, it also begs a few questions. Rand's discussion seems to advocate something like rugged individualism, irres

Category: Philosophy - M