Question: If the pursuit of happiness is one of our goals, what if a person enjoys being altruistic?
It's an interesting one. My first reaction is to say, 'If being altruistic makes you happy, then you're doing it wrong!'
Here we're using the term 'altruism' in its philosophical sense; other-ism, altru-ism. It's a moral theory that says the other is the standard of value, not the self; and whether it makes you happy or not, benefits you or not, is entirely irrelevant to the morality of the action. Only the benefit to the other is important, and strong versions of altruism say you should be selfless in the literal sense. The self is of less importance. You should be self-sacrificing, and sacrifice doesn't mean just paying investment costs hoping for a larger return. It means suffering pain, giving-up, losing in the long run.
And so altruism then, as a philosophical theory means that it has to be done as a matter of duty and against yourself-interest, and that is precisely what Objectivism is opposed to.
Stephen R. C. Hicks is a Senior Scholar for The Atlas Society and Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is also the Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford University.
Ele é autor de A Arte da Raciocínio: Leituras para Análise Lógica (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explicando o pós-modernismo: Cepticismo e Socialismo de Rousseau a Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche e os nazis (Ockham's Razor, 2010), Vida empresarial (CEEF, 2016), Liberalismo Pro e Con (Connor Court, 2020), Arte: Moderno, Pós-moderno e Mais Além (com Michael Newberry, 2021) e Oito Filosofias da Educação (2022). Publicou em Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, e The Wall Street Journal. Os seus escritos foram traduzidos em 20 línguas.
Tem sido Professor Visitante de Ética Empresarial na Universidade de Georgetown em Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow no Centro de Filosofia e Política Social em Bowling Green, Ohio, Professor Visitante na Universidade de Kasimir the Great, Polónia, Visiting Fellow no Harris Manchester College da Universidade de Oxford, Inglaterra, e Professor Visitante na Universidade Jagiellonian, Polónia.
Os seus diplomas de licenciatura e mestrado são da Universidade de Guelph, Canadá. O seu doutoramento em Filosofia é da Universidade de Indiana, Bloomington, EUA.
Em 2010, ganhou o Prémio de Excelência em Ensino da sua universidade.
A sua série de podcasts Open College é publicada pela Possibly Correct Productions, Toronto. As suas palestras e entrevistas em vídeo estão online no CEE Video Channel, e o seu website é StephenHicks.org.
Instagram Takeover Questions:
Every week we solicit questions from our 100K followers on Instagram (a social media platform popular with young people. Once a month we feature Stephen Hicks' answers to select questions, transcripts below:
Também vários artigos, seleccionados pelo provável interesse do público objectivista: