Don't Cede "Selfishness" by Stuart K. Hayashi - 1 of 3

This is from a letter sent to me by Stuart K. Hayashi - a ringing defense of "Selfishness" as the moral high ground.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Mrcropper
• Stuart
• Hayashi
• selfishness
• selfish
• greed
• philosophy
• objectivism
• ayn
• rand
• peikoff

[pr0gm3r]

human are profiting themselves. One wants to gain advantage over the other. Harming? human can harm the self and others. Therefore everyone is harm in some form or another.

Pain and Suffering always occurs when human mind conduct this thinking.

Man is always contradictory and selective being. It is our will to power and to be the top so one can feel pleasure. btw even pleasure is in the content of our mind. Hence be careful what you think. Thinking is the problems!

[MrCropper]

"Hence be careful what you think. Thinking is the problems!"

I suppose you figured this out by thinking, right?

And I suspect you don't want me to think about your admonition - you want me to just accept it? What an idiotic bag of contradiction.

[nine9s]

"The technical definition implies looking out for one's self-interest. The word's second meaning is in its emotional underpinning." That is a misunderstanding of what non-Objectivists mean by the word "selfishness". We O'ists would say that eating a meal is an example of selfishness, but that would make no sense at all to a non-Objectivist. Non-O's use the word to mean harming others in the pursuit of one's self-interest. Self-interest is a more accurate word to use for what Rand meant.

[MrCropper]

"that would make no sense at all to a non-Objectivist. Non-O's use the word to mean harming others in the pursuit of one's self-interest."

This is not relevant.

"Self-interest is a more accurate word to use for what Rand meant."

Only if you accept the package-deal that self-interest harms the acting self.

[nine9s]

"...the package deal that self-interest harms the acting self." Huh? That package deal exists for "selfishness" far more so than with "self-interest."

[MrCropper]

""

So you DO see 'selfish' as a package deal!?

As for where it comes from/gets its original meaning, I've not considered the question. How is it relevant?

[qtronman]

3 Cheers for Stuart/Legendre007. He is one of the few rational men on YouTube.

[legendre007]

When you go to DictionaryDOTCom, the 1st definition of "selfish" offered is "devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others."  It doesn't say "at the inexorable expense of others," though that's what normal people emotionally mean when they say "selfish."

[Sam26100]

Wonderful video.

[illuded]

Rand was correct on using 'selfishness' because there is no alternative. 'Selflessness' does not count because it is self-contradictory, and therefore does not exist in reality. You cannot make up another word because I think people would just identify it as selfishness anyways.

What you should do in arguing with Non-O's are two things:

1. show the self-contradiction of selflessness/altruism.

2. detach the negative emotional aspect conventionally associated with the definition of selfishness.

[UltiGamer101]

Entrepreneurs aren't selfish...

Entrepreneurs, they are simply their own boss.

but those who arent entrepreneurs are working for them, because who your working for is your boss...well if they dont have a boss, the are their own boss, making them entrepreneurs. if your boss answers to another boss, and that boss doesnt answer to one, then he is an entrepreneur. See? those who think entrepreneurs are selfish are actually working for them, whether it be through a chain of people or not.

[sailormnop007]

Works for me.

[theinquisitor]

The reason the common meaning of the word selfish should be rejected is because it is incoherent. It is applied to people who are actually self-interested and those who simply act on their desires and stupidity and end up hurting themselves.

It's the same reason the word planet was redefined. It was being used to refer to Pluto, but not hundreds of other objects of a similar size and location, so to make the term coherent, Pluto had to not be one, or we had to count planets in the hundreds.

[theinquisitor]

Exactly my point. We are stuck with it. If you try to talk to someone about Objectivism or Ayn Rand, it's likely that they'll know the word selfish is used in this context, or they'll find out soon.

You just have to point out that words aren't magic containers of meaning, but merely sounds and symbols we use as labels so we don't have to re-describe a concept every time we mention it.

"Ayn Rand used a different definition of that word, and here it is..." should be all you need to say.

[sailormnop007]

And the problem with that is that what we're talking about actually isn't selfishness. That word includes self-interest AND all of the negative connotations that my grandmother loaded with when she scolded my mother for not sharing with my aunt. That IS the actual meaning of the word today. I agree with everything in Objectivism that I've given serious thought to, but I really wish Ayn Rand hadn't tried to redefine selfishness. She used it for shock value, but now we may be stuck with the tag.