Meeting to Discuss "The Ethics of Emergencies" by Ayn

What: Discussion of "The Ethics of Emergencies" by Ayn
Rand, in _The Virtue of Selfishness_, using questions
attached. Please read (or re-read) the essay before
you come.

Where/When: Sign up with yahoo group for time and location information

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/opar-announce/



Questions: (Please print out)

1) What is the theme of this essay? (“Theme” being
defined as what an author wants to say about the
particular subject he has chosen to write about.)

2) What is an “emergency”?


3) What does Ayn Rand mean by the “hierarchy of
values”? (You may need to look at an outside source,
such as “The Ayn Rand Lexicon” –see entry on
“Teleological Measurement”- for this answer.)

4) What is a “sacrifice” according to Ayn Rand’s
philosophy? Give a made-up example of what, according
to Ayn Rand’s philosophy, would be regarded as a
“sacrifice”. What does Ayn Rand regard as the
“rational principle of conduct” regarding one’s
hierarchy of values?

5) What is “love”, according to Ayn Rand’s philosophy?
What are some of the different types of love, and why
are they all still considered to be love?

6) In discussing the issue of helping others with
critics of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, I often find that
they will claim that any sort of regard or liking of
other people is forbidden by her philosophy. They
will claim that ascribing to Ayn Rand’s philosophy
means that one must renounce any desire to be around
other people. In the realm of economics, this view is
easily refuted, since the division of labor, based on
the principle of trade, clearly makes business
associations with others in one’s self interest.
(Imagine trying to produce all of the material
products that you enjoy on your own without the
benefit of trade with other human beings.) However,
in the realm of love, the benefits of one’s friends
and lovers are often less tangible. Describe some of
the benefits associated with friendship and love.


7) In “The Ethics of Emergencies”, Ayn Rand describes
a husband who spends a fortune to save his sick wife,
and explains that this is not a sacrifice, and
therefore is in his self-interest. She presents a
counter-example to show why this is in fact not a
sacrifice by the husband. Describe that
counter-example.


8) What does Ayn Rand say is the “…proper method of
judging when or whether one should help another
person…”? Describe how Ayn Rand answers the question
of whether one should save a drowning person based on
this method.


9) Ayn Rand says that deciding whether to save a
drowning person (or a person in a fire, or other
emergency) depends on how much of a value the drowning
person is, and that the greater the value, the greater
the risk one should be willing to take. (See pg. 45 of
Signet Ed., Second Full Para From Bottom) Define what
“risk” means in this context.

10) At the beginning of the essay, Ayn Rand describes
four of the psychological/intellectual consequences of
one who accepts the morality of altruism. The third
is described as “A nightmare view of existence –since
he [the altruist] believes that men are trapped in a
‘malevolent universe’ where disasters are the constant
and primary concern of their lives.” Later in the
essay, she then discusses the issue of whether one
should save a drowning person (pg. 45, Signet Ed.,
First Full Para From bottom), and says: “If the person
to be saved is a stranger, it is morally proper to
save him only when the danger to one’s own life is
minimal; when the danger is great, it would be immoral
to attempt it…If the person to be saved is not a
stranger, then the risk one should be willing to take
is greater in proportion to the greatness of that
person’s value to oneself.” She seems to think that
at least two factors should be taken into
consideration in deciding what to do in this
situation: First, what is the value of the person to
you, and, second what is the risk of you dying in the
rescue attempt? How would a “malevolent universe
premise” affect this calculation?

11) Ayn Rand says that “The virtue involved in helping
those one loves is not ‘selflessness’ or ‘sacrifice’,
but integrity. Integrity is loyalty to one’s
convictions and values; it is the policy of acting in
accordance with one’s values, of expressing, upholding
and translating them into practical reality. If a man
professes to love a woman, yet his actions are
indifferent, inimical or damaging to her, it is his
lack of integrity that makes him immoral.” Consider
two examples of a person who acts in an emergency to
defend his values: (1) A mother who runs into a
burning building to save her children, despite the
great risk to herself. (2) A man who enlists in the
Army to fight in a war necessary to defend his
country’s freedom, despite the possibility of being
killed in combat. In both of these situations,
commentators in our popular culture would tend to
describe these people as “brave” or “courageous”,
rather than as having “integrity”. Is it possible to
reconcile the description Ayn Rand gives of these
people (having integrity) with the description that
our popular culture would give (having courage)?



12) What attitude does Ayn Rand think one should have
towards strangers, given the subject of this essay?
Why does she think this is the proper attitude? What
does Ayn Rand mean by “species solidarity”? In
judging others, what is the initial premise one should
act from when meeting a stranger?



13) What does Ayn Rand mean by “metaphysically
normal” conditions, as opposed to an “emergency
situation”? What is the goal in an emergency
situation?





14) Ayn Rand gives an example of one hearing “…that
the man next door is ill and penniless. Illness and
poverty are not metaphysical emergencies, they are
part of the normal risks of existence; but since the
man is temporarily helpless, one may bring him food
and medicine. [sic] if one can afford it (as an
act of good will, not of duty) or one may raise a fund
among the neighbors to help him out.” (pg. 48, Sig.
Ed. Second full para from top) The example of
voluntary, non-sacrificial charity given is an example
of helping out others in one’s local community (one’s
neighbor). Would Ayn Rand’s philosophy tend to
encourage such local charity over giving to anonymous
individuals that are not in one’s local community?



15) What are the metaphysics of the altruist morality?
What are the metaphysics of the egoist morality?
What fact does Ayn Rand point to show that the
altruist metaphysics is wrong?