The Rational Egoist

Since I refer to this blog as The Rational Egoist, I thought I’d take some time to explain what a rational egoist is.

Reason is the faculty that identifies and integrates what man perceives through sense data. First, one’s sense organs receive sense data, which is then integrated by the process of concept-formation. While the process of perceiving reality through sense data is automatic, the process of concept-formation is not, but rather it is volitional. This means that one has the ability to choose to integrate one’s sense data to the best of their ability or to choose to evade the integration of one’s sense data to the best of their ability. If the choice is made to integrate one’s sense data to the best of one’s ability, a specific method is required for achieving that integration, which is: logic. Logic is the art of non-contradictory identification. Through the use of logic, one can properly integrate their sense data into concepts and thus achieve knowledge of the facts of reality.

According to Objectivism, based on the nature of a human being, reason is the only means of knowledge. This means, that reason is a value to human beings. According to Ayn Rand, a value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. Translated into action, a virtue is the action by which one gains and keeps a value. In the words of Ayn Rand,

The virtue of Rationality means the recognition and acceptance of reason as one’s only source of knowledge, one’s only judge of values and one’s only guide to action. It means one’s total commitment to a state of full, conscious awareness, to the maintenance of a full mental focus in all issues, in all choices, in all of one’s waking hours. It means a commitment to the fullest perception of reality within one’s power and to the constant, active expansion of one’s perception, i.e., of one’s knowledge. It means a commitment to the reality of one’s own existence, i.e., to the principle that all of one’s goals, values and actions take place in reality and, therefore, that one must never place any value or consideration whatsoever above one’s perception of reality. It means a commitment to the principle that all of one’s convictions, values, goals, desires and actions must be based on, derived from, chosen and validated by a process of thought—as precise and scrupulous a process of thought, directed by as ruthlessly strict an application of logic, as one’s fullest capacity permits. It means one’s acceptance of the responsibility of forming one’s own judgments and of living by the work of one’s own mind (which is the virtue of Independence). It means that one must never sacrifice one’s convictions to the opinions or wishes of others (which is the virtue of Integrity)—that one must never attempt to fake reality in any manner (which is the virtue of Honesty)—that one must never seek or grant the unearned and undeserved, neither in matter nor in spirit (which is the virtue of Justice). It means that one must never desire effects without causes, and that one must never enact a cause without assuming full responsibility for its effects-that one must never act like a zombie, i.e., without knowing one’s own purposes and motives-that one must never make any decisions, form any convictions or seek any values out of context, i.e., apart from or against the total, integrated sum of one’s knowledge—and, above all, that one must never seek to get away with contradictions. It means the rejection of any form of mysticism, i.e., any claim to some nonsensory, nonrational, nondefinable, supernatural source.

The concept of egoism denotes a philosophy that says that every man should be the moral beneficiary of his own actions by acting in his own self-interest. However, what exactly is in one’s self-interest and how one is to judge what is in one’s self-interest? Philosophers have given different criteria for determining exactly what is in one’s own self-interest, which has resulted in two different “forms” of egoism that advocate different criteria of self-interest: those philosophies that advocate whim (subjective feelings) and those philosophies which advocate reason. According to the egoistic philosophies that advocate whim as the criterion of self-interest, an action is in one’s own self-interest if one feels it to be so; whereas, according to the egoistic philosophies that advocate reason as the criterion of self-interest, an action is moral (in one’s own self-interest) if it is objectively demonstrated by reason to be moral.

While both the whim-oriented and reason-oriented egoistic philosophies claim to advocate the proper criterion for what is in the self-interest of the individual, there is only one proper criterion, and that is reason: the identification and integration of reality. In order to determine what is in one’s own self-interest, one must properly identify the facts of reality and then take the correct course of action according to the method of logic. Only a philosophy that strictly adheres to this principle can properly allow an individual to act in his own self-interest. This philosophy is rational egoism, as advocated by Objectivism.

Thus, I refer to myself as The Rational Egoist because I recognize that reason is the only means to knowledge for a human being, egoism is the only proper ethical philosophy, and the strictest use of reason is required to correctly follow egoism.