Abstract

This chapter discusses Ayn Rand's view of the moral principles by which individuals should interact with one another and societies should be organized. It concentrates on four issues: the role of trade and the benevolent attitudes that trade relationships engender; Rand's principle that man is an end in himself; the question of whether there are conflicts among human interests; and Rand's account of individual rights. Benevolence, both as an individual characteristic and as an attribute of a society, depends on the moral choices of individuals. The possession of a correct philosophical theory of human good is a necessary condition of a having fully objective and wholly corrects conception of one's personal interests. In Rand's ethics, rationality is the primary moral virtue, but it is possible to possess this virtue without having theoretical knowledge of morality. The values of social life require not just human interactions but organized, permanent settlements societies.