Objectivism, the individual-centric philosophy of Ayn Rand, often gets a bad rap for being cold and heartless. In his National Review article, Whittaker Chambers wrote that Rand’s worldview replaces Christian morality with a cruel system where the strong owe nothing to anyone. He asserted:

“Randian man, like Marxian man, is made the center of a godless world… [Her system] commands: ‘Be selfish!’… It makes a virtue of what the rest of mankind has found to be a vice.”

Rand remains one of the most polarizing thinkers of the twentieth century: admired by many readers for her moral defense of individual achievement and independence, and criticized by others for what they see as an overly rigid ethical framework and an insufficient appreciation of interdependence and social obligation. I don’t profess to be an expert on Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Still, I believe criticisms that she rejected altruism outright are misguided and are often advanced by individuals more concerned with denigrating her than understanding her philosophy and her specific interpretation of what altruism means.

People often praise someone by saying “He’d give you the shirt off his back” as the ultimate example of selflessness and morality. If you believe the man giving his shirt to someone who doesn’t have one is a moral exemplar, you would be adhering to a definition of altruism coined by French philosopher Auguste Comte, who believed that the moral purpose of your life is to live for others rather than yourself. Under this definition, self-sacrifice is the highest virtue, pursuing your own happiness is morally suspect, and the greater the sacrifice, the greater the virtue.

My knowledge of Objectivism, combined with two real-life experiences that I will elaborate on later, helped me understand Rand’s rejection of Comte’s definition and the importance of an individual’s moral right to pursue their own life and happiness. Many people equate kindness and altruism (as defined by Comte). Rand separated these concepts. She believed you could be extraordinarily generous without believing your life belongs to others. The thing she wished to debunk was the idea that self-sacrifice is the standard of morality. Rand never argued that people should never help others. She believed in helping people you value, helping friends and family, or voluntarily giving money to charity. The key word is voluntary. Helping someone because you love them is not, in Rand’s view, a sacrifice. It is an expression of your own values.

I believe Ayn Rand........

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