Tara Smith > Quotes

“It is the fact that living organisms confront the alternative of life or death, then, that makes value both possible and necessary. This alternative make values possible because things could be valuable only on account of their effect on an organism’s life.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“It is not sufficient to show that life mandates values; the fact that life allows for the possibility of values is crucial to exclude other conceivable grounds for values.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“Ethical egoism is the thesis that a person should act to promote his own interest. More precisely, it is the view that each person’s primary moral obligation is to achieve his own well-being and he should not sacrifice his well-being for the well-being of others.”
― Tara Smith, Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist

“To cling to his business rather than admit its failure simply because he really wants to make his career in this way may gratify certain desires, but it does not advance his life. Facing facts is a prerequisite for truly self-interested action. If a person is not able to offer as desirable a product as his competitor or to turn a satisfactory profit, he would be better off in another line of work.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“In order to completely dispose of damaging misconceptions of self-interest, I particularly wish to emphasize two of its features that are rarely recognized: self-interest’s spiritual dimension and self-interest’s rigorous demands.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“Contrary to the prevalent image of the egoist as oblivious to all standards and moved entirely by what he wants, when he wants it, Rand sees such an erratic, emotion-driven course as a sure way to sabotage one’s well-being. Serving one’s interest requires action guided by the recognition of certain constant, fundamental facts. These facts are the basis of moral principles.”
― Tara Smith, Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist

“Life, as the source and aim of ethics, is flourishing. These are not two alternative goals only one of which a person might adopt. Obviously, not everyone alive flourishes; to deny this would empty “flourishing” of meaning. But a flourishing life is the target and foundation of value.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“The basis for regarding certain ends as objectively valuable to an organism, as the kinds of things that it should seek, Rand reasons, rests in the struggle for life.”
― Tara Smith, Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist

“Rand’s egoism is distinctive insofar as she contends that a determination of the proper way to lead our lives must begin with an analysis of the concept of value.”
― Tara Smith, Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist

“Having rejected the idea of intrinsic value in chapter three, we cannot treat life as intrinsically valuable. Rather, the existence of value is conditional; value arises for those who seek to maintain their lives.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“The assignment of intrinsic value rests, fundamentally, on the fact that a person or persons firmly believe that something has it. This leaves its advocates helpless against anyone who detects intrinsic value elsewhere, exposing belief in intrinsic value as something that is as fickle as subjectivism and as arbitrary as Intuitionism. Since intrinsic value’s apparent objectivity is deceptive, the effect of indulging this thesis is the further entrenchment of subjectivism.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“The most common grounds of resistance to egoism are the beliefs that egoism is hedonistic, materialistic, or subjective.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“A conflict of desires does not signify a conflict between interests since desire is not the standard of value.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“Well-being resides in one’s being having the character that only the proper leading of one’s life can provide. A person creates value by acting in a way that advances his life.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“Ethics is not a bitter wind in one's face, stinging a person with injunctions to act against his interest, but a breeze at one's back, aiding a person toward the achievement of life-enhancing values. Morality is not a burden to be resented or scrimped on, complied with only grudgingly. If Rand's theory of the nature of morality is correct, cutting moral corners amounts to cutting one's own throat. Far from being a necessary evil, ethics is a necessary ally, an indispensable tool for living. To the extent that a moral code accurately identifies a life-promoting course, morality is a tremendous benefactor.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“The fact that life makes values necessary means that the person who seeks his life must act morally in order to achieve values to sustain his life. That is the foundation for moral obligation.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality

“Optional values must respect the parameters established by the standard of value; they must contribute to a life-promoting course. Optional values do not reflect a departure from objectivity but, rather, permissible variation in particular ways of pursuing objective values.”
― Tara Smith, Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality