Selfish Innovation
“People acting in their own self interest is the fuel for all the discovery, innovation, and prosperity that powers the world” a quote by John Stossel a television personality, author, and libertarian pundit. While being selfish has been given an abominable reputation, it is the key in forging new creations. In The Fountainhead Howard Roark is a marvelous architect off the beaten path, but, his repugnance to accommodate the demands of others puts him at a disadvantage. However, even as he is criticized he never falters in his own confidence of his designs. Roark represents the values of egoism and how it allows him to create new inventive formations. The foil of Roark is Peter Keating, he represents the values of altruism
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While the idea of thinking of and helping others sounds “nice” it is just candidly that there is no amelioration through this. Altruism is a detriment to the mind allowing it to be clouded by the opinions of others and allowing people to sacrifice heart in themselves. “He knew, for the moment, that he felt affection for Roark; an affection that held pain, astonishment and helplessness” (Rand 114). Peter Keating displays how he looks to others for inspiration rather than himself like Roark does. Keating is insecure about his abilities and his covetousness for the regard of others makes him a slave to their genius, while contributing none of his own. People use magnanimity as a way to escape their own problems by helping others or expecting a favor in return for their time spent helping. Psychiatrist, philosopher, and writer who lives and teaches in Oxford, England Neel Burton M.D. says: “Altruism is an ego defence, a form of sublimation in which a person copes with his problems and anxieties by stepping outside himself and helping others” (Burton). Altruism is a way for people to run away from their griefs by focusing on the distress of others. However, this leads to concentrating so much on others a person can not refine themselves. Egoism should be glorified, it allows for people to be able to improve themselves and build their …show more content…
A person’s ego can help them keep up the confidence necessary to forge new ideas and not back down based on others disapproval. Also, altruism is just a cover for the ego keeping it in a prison and letting a person become too focused on others opinions. Finally, having an ego is completely natural and actually much less deceitful than an altruistic person with enigmatical motives. People have to look out for themselves first in order to make sure they achieve their goals in life. A quote by Ayn Rand ventilates “No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to
According to the article, Altruism and helping behavior, it is common for people to help others. Altruism is defined as “the desire to help another person even if it doesn’t benefit the helper” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print.). Helping behavior is “any act that is intended to benefit another person”
In a year that remains undefined beneath a small city lit only by candles, a young man is working. He works without the council to guide him and without his brothers beside him. He works for his own purposes, for his own desires, for the dreams that were born in his own steady heart and bright mind. In his society, this is the greatest transgression. To stand alone is to stand groping in the dark, and to act alone is to be shamed by one’s own selfishness. The elegantly simple society that Ayn Rand has created in the novel Anthem has erased all segregation and discrimination by making every man one and the same with those around him; only Equality 7-2521 defies the norm with his ruthless
The Fountainhead is a novel of gigantic proportions. It deals with great talent and great mediocrity, with great love and great hatred, with great ambition and equally great complacence. It unpretentiously chooses to steer clear of the much hyped common man, with his commonplace dreams and aspirations.
By definition, altruism is "the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others". Through vigorous analysis, however, I have established it to be a complex ideology whose followers can be divided into three categories: slaves, abusers, and advocates. The slave abides by the ideals of 'pure' altruism. In other words, he does not act according to personal need or desire; humanity is all that matters. This is altruism in its purest form and is the branch of altruism which envelopes Catherine and allows her to feel a sense of purpose. Yet, much more common is the abuser of altruism. He is the altruist who ascertains and seizes any opportunity for personal gain by abusing the ostensibly philanthropic ideology. As ironic as this seems, it is common practice for one to proffer with the intention of receiving something in return. Peter Keating demonstrates how such an abuser manipulates altruism into a golden ladder by which he may reach success. Reigning over even the most conniving abuser is the omnipot...
If one wishes to be a psychological egoist, then one needs to explain why people do certain actions that appear to be genuine acts of altruism.
• Once more, the ordinary science’ proves itself as the master of classification, inventing and defining the various categories of Egoism. Per example, psychological egoism, which defines doctrine that an individual is always motivated by self-interest, then rational egoism which unquestionably advocates acting in self-interest. Ethical egoism as diametrically opposite of ethical altruism which obliges a moral agent to assist the other first, even if sacrifices own interest. Also, ethical egoism differs from both rational and psychological egoism in ‘defending’ doctrine which considers all actions with contributive beneficial effects for an acting individual
As previously stated, there is a balance to be maintained between selflessness and selfishness. Logically speaking, you would always want to help people, but overexerting yourself to try and help them solve their problems, won’t really help anyone. These ideas are expressed in Selflessness and the Loss of Self (Hampton, Jean, and Daniel Farnham). The Intrinsic Worth of Persons: Contractarianism in Moral and Political Philosophy. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007.
The main theme of Rand’s novels is the contradiction between her definition of selfish and selfless versus the popular understanding. She sees being selfish and concerned with oneself as a positive attribute as it means that individual has chosen higher values for himself and being selfless and altruistic as a fault as people tend to be unethical (Flanagan). Howard Roark is a character who is selfish and the protagonist of The Fountainhead. After being arrested for blowing up the Cortlandt housing project, Roark chooses the most hostile jury he can and not to bring witnesses. Instead he defends himself with a philosophical speech as he tells them, “The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain....
Altruism is selfless acts like someone willingly sacrificing their life for their child’s. When people show acts of altruism it is usually because they feel empathy for the person. They have feelings that reflect on how that person is feeling in the situation. We sacrifice ourselves for strangers in need to help reduce our personal distress of seeing them in need. Another reason is experiencing the feelings of the person in need. If a person sees someone having car trouble they will want to help because they remember having car trouble with no one around to help. They are sacrificing their wellbeing by pulling over to help, they could be putting themselves in a bad situation if the person is a criminal.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, altruism is defined as an “unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others”. In simpler terms, altruism is unconditional kindness. Altruistic behavior has been a controversial and obscure subject among biologists, including Charles Darwin, who was one of the first to try and explain this phenomenon. “To explain the evolution of altruism, Charles Darwin suggested that natural selection could act on groups as well as individuals--an idea known as group selection”(Schwartz). Group selection, which was based off of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, was the theory that an individual organism would sacrifice itself (seemingly selflessly) for the good of the entire population, hoping that its actions would save the group from annihilation and therefore allow for the continuation of the group’s gene flow into its descendants. Darwin explained that groups with members “ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves for the com...
Being selfish can lead to unthinkable consequences. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, four elderly friends gathered at the home of Dr. Heidegger, who wanted to try an experiment on them. They drank water from the fountain of youth, and in turn become young and greedy again. Their age came back, and they wished for more and more water. Although they wanted to be young and live their life again, they were destined to grow old. Situations that are meant to happen cannot be avoided.
The behavior of altruism in an individual is when it brings more costs than benefits for the benefit of another individual. Altruism comes from the Latin word "Alter" which means "the others." This translation of alturism describes it relatively well. Another great definition of altruism can be found in a statement of Edward Osborne Wilson, an American biologist. According to Wilson, "Altruism is defined in biology, as in everyday life, as a self-destructive
Before a case can be made for the causes of altruism, altruism itself must first be defined. Most leading psychologists agree that the definition of altruism is “a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another’s welfare.” (Batson, 1981). The only way for a person to be truly altruistic is if their intent is to help the community before themselves. However, the only thing humans can see is the actions themselves, and so, selfish intent may seem the same as altruistic intent. Alas, the only way that altruism can be judged is if the intent is obvious. Through that, we must conclude that only certain intents can be defined as altruistic, and as intent stemming from nature benefits the group while other intent benefits yourself, only actions caused by nature are truly altruistic.
Psychological egoism, a descriptive claim about human nature, states that humans by nature are motivated only by self-interest. To act in one's self-interest is to act mainly for one's own good and loving what is one's own (i.e. ego, body, family, house, belongings in general). It means to give one's own interests higher priority then others'. "It (psychological egoism) claims that we cannot do other than act from self-interest motivation, so that altruism-the theory that we can and should sometimes act in favor of others' interests-is simply invalid because it's impossible" (Pojman 85). According to psychological egoists, any act no matter how altruistic it might seem, is actually motivated by some selfish desire of the agent (i.e., desire for reward, avoidance of guilt, personal happiness).
The study conducted by Christov-Moore shows us that altruism isn’t just something we necessary have to force yourself to do, but it’s an inherent part of us. As Christov-Moore puts is, altruism is “not something that’s very abstract and rational. It’s actually a very emotional impulse.” This is important to know and to further study because even though altruism might be more scientific than we would like to accept, it is still a relationship between people who have a collective capacity for good and even the same capacity for evil. Altruism plays out in our everyday lives, when someone drops their rack of papers and a random strangers decides to take a couple seconds and help pick up some papers off the ground, in our past, when our caregivers constantly woke up to ensure our crying, as vexatious as it might have been, was not because we were starving or scared, and will continue to play out for all our individual and collective social interactions.