Word: egoism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...innate social repertoire, and in other ways as well we are naturally crude. But the restraint of crude impulses is also part of our nature. Indeed, the "guilt" that Freud never satisfactorily explained is one built-in restrainer. By design, it discourages us from, say, neglecting kin through unbridled egoism, or imperiling friendships in the heat of anger--or, at the very least, it goads us to make amends after such imperiling, once we've cooled down. Certainly modern society may burden us unduly with guilt. After erupting in anger toward an acquaintance...
Objectivism encompasses the five branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics. Her philosophy relies on reason as a person's only absolute. Objectivism advocates rational egoism as the moral standard for the individual and laissez-faire capitalism as the moral standard for society...
Rand's ideas are often discarded on the ground that they are immoral. Her advocacy of egoism is often described as cruel and harsh. But Objectivism does not advocate living according to one's desires, whether rational or not, while disregarding the consequences to others...
...claim that Objectivism is cruel, hence immoral, is a complete perversion of Rand's philosophy. It is taking Nietzsche's notion of the noble as the Ubermensch and imposing this notion on Objectivism. Rand's version of rational egoism is distinct from and vehemently opposed to Nietzsche's understanding of egoism. Rand categorically opposed the violation of others' freedom, while Nietzsche tolerated it. Yet Nietzsche is taught at Harvard and Rand...
When I was a student at Dartmouth I used to joke about the cocky pretension and narrow-minded egoism of Harvard students. I always thought of those images as inaccurate stereotypes. Maybe I was wrong. --Robert C. Bordone Dartmouth College, Class of 1994 Harvard Law School, Class...