The “Virtue of Selfishness”? Ayn Rand’s Ethics of Egoism in Your Own Life

Ayn Rand held that an individual’s pursuit of “his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.” Fifty years ago, Rand published The Virtue of Selfishness, a groundbreaking book laying out her ethics of rational egoism. What does it look like to be selfish in your own life? In this introductory talk, Elan Journo discusses Rand’s conception of morality and sketches what it looks like in practice.

Recorded May 7, 2014

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Headquartered in Irvine, California, the Ayn Rand Institute works to introduce young people to Ayn Rand's novels, to support scholarships and research based on her ideas and to promote the principles of reason, individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism.

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