Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: "Justice, Cherryl.", published by Zack M Davis on July 23, 2023 on LessWrong.

Selfishness and altruism are positively correlated within individuals, for the obvious reason.

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An unfortunate obstacle to appreciating the work of Ayn Rand (as someone who adores the "sense of life" portrayed in Rand's fiction, while having a much lower opinion of her philosophy) is that when Rand praises selfishness and condemns altruism, she's using the words "selfishness" and "altruism" in her own idiosyncratic ideological sense that doesn't match how most people would use those words.

It's true that Rand's heroes are relatively selfish in the sense of being primarily concerned with their own lives, rather than their effects on others. But if you look at what the characters do (rather than the words they say), Rand's villains are also selfish in a conventional sense, using guile and political maneuvering to acquire power and line their own pockets, while claiming to be acting for the common good. For example, in Atlas Shrugged, the various directives ostensibly issued for the economic health of the country are seen to instead benefit politically connected crony capitalists like James Taggart and Orren Boyle. In Think Twice, the philanthropist Walter Breckenridge cultivates an public image as an inventor and benefactor of humanity while stealing credit for his junior partner's work and deriving gratification from exerting power over the people he "helps".

Despite paying lip service to a pretense of only trading and never giving, we also see examples of Rand's heroes being altruistic in the conventional sense, of being motivated to help others. For example, in Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden rearranges his production schedule (at a critical time when he could scarcely afford to do so) in order to sell steel to a Mr. Ward, who needs the steel to save his family business (but doesn't see Rearden as obligated to help him). Rearden's motive is pure benevolence: "It's so much for him, thought Rearden, and so little for me!" Giving What We Can couldn't have chosen a better slogan.

Overall, when I look at the universe portrayed in Rand's fiction, it seems to me that the implied moral isn't that altruism is bad.

It's that altruists don't exist. The people claiming to be altruists are lying. The distinguishing feature of our heroes isn't, actually, that they're unusually selfish. It's that they're honest about being mostly selfish, and that they want to pursue their interests within a framework of rights that respects that other people are also trying to pursue their interests. "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine," goes the motto of the striking heroes of Atlas Shrugged (emphasis mine); the second clause is important. Given that everyone is mostly selfish and everyone has to eat, the question is: are you going to eat by means of production and trade, or by - other means?

That's the distinction between Rand's heroes and villains. The heroes want to get rich by means of doing genuinely good work that other people will have a genuine self-interest in paying for. The villains want to wield power by means of psychological manipulation, guilt-tripping and blackmailing the people who can do good work into serving their own parasites and destroyers.

As Greg Hastings, the district attorney in Think Twice, puts it: "[T]he man who admits that he cares for money is all right. He's usually worth the money he makes. He won't kill for it. He doesn't have to. But watch out for the man who yells too loudly how much he scorns money. Watch out particularly for the one who yells that others must scorn it. He's after something much worse than money."

Furthermore, the heroes know that wealth and fame acquired by f...