The ethics of altruism [from the Latin, alter-ism or other-ism] holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of others first, acts to achieve their interests, and, when necessary, sacrifices one’s interests for their sake. In The Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey is the major strategist of […]
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[I use Ayn Rand’s classic The Fountainhead in my Introduction to Philosophy course, analyzing the five major characters as moral-philosophical types. Here is a digest of the novel’s brilliant-manipulator villain, Ellsworth Toohey.] The ethics of altruism holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of
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The biographer of Nobel Peace prize-winning (and Rockford University graduate) Jane Addams recounts this incident, in which Addams invokes Kantian duty-ethic in response to a friend’s desire for some gratitude in response to her charitable works: “Her wealthy friends like Louise deKoven Bowen [1859-1953] viewed gratitude for their good work as the only payment they
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From a book within a book:
“He said that architecture was truly the greatest of the arts, because it was anonymous, as all greatness. …
Did you build that? Read More »
My original post on Toohey’s five strategies of altruism has been published in a print version designed by Christopher Vaughan, with graphics and scary pull quotes. Here is the PDF version. The post’s opening: “The ethics of altruism holds that others are standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests
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