The Rationale of Values

Ayn Rand in “Objectivist Ethics” discusses her reasoning behind ethics. Ethics are nothing but a code of values. Values represent a choice among a set of possible alternatives. How are values defined? Who has defined them and against what have they been defined. Ayn Rand argues that life is the standard against which any code of ethics should be measured. Anything that prolongs life is to be pursued against anything that results in death.

While life is the basis for measurement of ethics how does one decide what is “good” and what is “evil”? Is the concept of “good” and “evil” based on the whim of a person, or on whims of society or does it just come from some mystical books. How does one define what is “good” and what is “evil?” To this Ayn Rand suggests that anything that results in pleasure to mankind must necessarily be good and anything that induces pain must be evil. So all things that promote pleasure or happiness can be assumed as being good and those that cause suffering can be assumed to be evil. Also man has to use his reason to determine what causes happiness and what causes suffering and not base these on what has been said or told to him. He has to use his reason and make rational choices in life.

Based on these premises Ayn Rand shows that there is virtue in selfishness where the primary purpose of man is the pursuit of happiness based rational choices in life. She explains that a selfish pursuit of pleasure does not imply the harm or the hurting of others. She advocates a policy where each individual works towards his own happiness and collaborates with others in society through a policy of give and take akin to trade.

Based on the premise that life is the standard of measure for a code of ethics and definition of “good” as anything that promotes happiness and “evil” to be anything that causes suffering I would like to investigate whether the commonly known values stand up to this test. The only additional condition that I would like to add is that “good” is anything that promotes happiness for the individual and the larger happiness of the society and “evil” is anything that causes pain to individual or the larger part of the society.

Integrity: Integrity is the virtue where one follows one’s convictions based on what is right and what is wrong. Assuming that the individual has exercised his reason he is bound to have a sound system of convictions. When somebody goes against his/her own conviction then he/she is bound to feel unsettled resulting in suffering. Hence integrity can be shown as maintaining inner peace and is definitely a value to be adhered to.

Honesty: Honesty denotes that we deal with reality as it is and we done misrepresent reality to ourselves or to others. Imagine a world where this value is not adhered to. Then we will never know what reality is there will be utter confusion resulting in chaos or in other words suffering. So logically honesty is a value that promotes peace and contentment in the individual and the society

Kindness: What is the reasoning behind kindness? Clearly when somebody is kind to us our happiness increases. So it makes perfect sense that we can increase the happiness quotient of others and consequently our own by being kind to others. This is simply based on doing unto others those acts that would have made us happy if we were on the receiving end of the act.

Trust: Trust is the axis around which society revolves. Being trustworthy is necessary and basing our actions on trust is extremely important for the smooth progress of society. This value also clearly stands to reasoning and promotes the well being of the individual and society.

Humility: The virtue of humility signifies that one has a balanced view of one’s own achievements and capabilities. It implies an absence of arrogance while at the same time denotes strong self-esteem. The value of humility is clearly a virtue that promotes contentment as opposed to excessive which can cause untold suffering if the ego is hurt.

So it clearly can be seen that the values of integrity, kindness, humility, trust and others truly stand to the test of reason and logic and promotes peace and contentment which should be basis for all actions. Hence a life that is based on sound north values is surely a life worth living.