My “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” was published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. Here is the abstract for my 43-page study: “Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues that Nietzsche and Rand have much in […]
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The ethics of altruism [from the Latin, alter-ism or other-ism] holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of others first, acts to achieve their interests, and, when necessary, sacrifices one’s interests for their sake. In The Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey is the major strategist of
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[I use Ayn Rand’s classic The Fountainhead in my Introduction to Philosophy course, analyzing the five major characters as moral-philosophical types. Here is a digest of the novel’s brilliant-manipulator villain, Ellsworth Toohey.] The ethics of altruism holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of
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My essay “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand” is a 43-page study published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (2009). Text version. Audiobook version: Part One, Part Two. The abstract: “Philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand are often identified as strong critics of altruism and arch advocates of egoism. In this essay, Stephen Hicks argues
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Audio version of my 42-page journal article “Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand.” Table of Contents: Part One: On Critiquing Altruism [MP3] [YouTube] [64 minutes] Three Nietzsches and Ayn RandSome Intellectuals on Nietzsche and RandEgoism, altruism, and “selfishness”A Nietzschean sketch: * God is dead * Nihilism’s symptoms * Two bio-psychological types * Psychology and morality *
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Reprising this intriguing passage from Berel Dov Lerner’s review of Moshe Halbertal’s On Sacrifice (2012): ‘Halbertal claims that despite all its transcendent glory, adoption of the notion of “sacrifice for” can generate especially terrible consequences: “misguided self-transcendence is morally more problematic and lethal than a disproportionate attachment to self-interest” (78, italics in original). How does
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Cuando el Altruismo se vuelve patológico Por Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D. ¿Quién es más propenso a engañar? ¿Aquellos que practican deportes individuales o aquellos que practican deportes en equipo? Traducido al Español por María Marty, 2016. English: “When Altruism Becomes Pathological”.
In this unit of Atlas University’s course on Socialism: Rand analyzes a major shift in leftist strategy—the narrative shift from Old Left to New Left defenses of socialism as the ultimate moral system. Their fundamental principles of “mysticism-altruism-collectivism” have not changed—rather the New Left is “cruder and more honest” in its explicit goals and practical
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