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Man’s Life as the Standard of Value in the Ethics of Ayn Rand and Aristotle

Gregory Salmieri

Presented at: OCON 2013

Date: Jul 05, 2013

“Man’s life,” wrote Ayn Rand, “is the standard of morality.” It is Aristotle more than any other philosopher who stressed our need to look to identify and look to a standard in selecting our goals. And Aristotle was the first to identify the proper standard as the distinctly human form of life—a life of developing and exercising our rational faculties to their fullest. Despite agreeing on these fundamental points, Rand and Aristotle have importantly different views of what the human form of life is. In particular, they differ about how reason relates to the faculties and on the needs that human beings share with other living things. This talk explores this difference and its causes and consequences. Topics to be addressed include: why Aristotle endorsed slavery and Rand, freedom; why Aristotle demeaned material production and Rand lauded it; and what it means to establish a standard of value objectively.

philosophyethics

Parts: 1

Handout: none

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