"The 'Conflicts' of Men's Interests"

When: July 15, 2007

Where: Sign up with http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opar-announce/ for location and time information

What: There has been a request to try something new after we finished OPAR, so at this meeting we will discuss "The 'Conflicts' of Men's Interests" by Ayn Rand, found in The Virtue of Selfishness ( http://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Selfishness-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451163931/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-4637697-5007625?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183758378&sr=8-1 ).

Even if you have read this essay several times already, I ask that you read it again before you come, so that it is fresh in your mind.

I have prepared some questions to help keep the discussion going:

1) What is the theme of this essay?
2) What is given as a common counter-example of the Objectivist assertion that there are no conflicts of interest among rational men?

3) What are the four interrelated considerations which are involved in a rational man’s view of his interests, but which are ignored or evaded by the presentation of the counter-example of two people competing for the same job?

4) What, in this context, does Ayn Rand mean by “Reality”, as it relates to the issue of there being no conflict of interest among rational men? Give an example of an irrational desire, and explain why this is not what Rand means by being in one’s self-interest.
5) What does Ayn Rand mean by “Context”?
6) What is “Context-Dropping”? Give two examples of it.
7) Are all “Context-Droppers” engaged in “evasion”? What is “evasion” according to Rand? (You may need to go to other writings by Ayn Rand to answer this question, such as “Galt’s Speech” in Atlas Shrugged; or The Ayn Rand Lexicon, ed. Harry Binswanger, see entry on “Evasion”.)
8) What does Ayn Rand mean by “Responsibility”, as it relates to her assertion that “there are no conflicts of interest among rational men”? Why does Ayn Rand seem to believe that a person who does not take responsibility for achieving his own goals will tend to adopt the attitude of not being concerned with the interests and lives of others? (“In dropping the responsibility for one’s own interests and life, one drops the responsibility of ever having to consider the interests and lives of others –of those who are, somehow, to provide the satisfaction of one’s desires.” (“The ‘Conflicts’ of Men’s Interests” by Ayn Rand, pg 54, _The Virtue of Selfishness_, Signet, ISBN 0-451-16393-1).)
9) What does Ayn Rand mean by “Effort”, as it relates to her assertion that “there are no conflicts of interest among rational men”?
10) Why does Ayn Rand think that there are no conflicts among rational men only if one lives in a free society? What aspects of an unfree society would make such conflicts inevitable in her view?