Wow, you have written a superb article here ... Compassion needs to be especially embraced by libertarians who often far too many arise out of Ayn Rand's condemnation of altruism as immoral. Compassion is an attribute of the Nature of Man, the NoM, that she unfortunately disregards ... Effectively ... It is a trait that was naturally selected and a statistical sample of Compassion would manifest as a Gaussian random distribution with a mean and a standard deviation whereby within two standard deviations of the mean about 95% of us would naturally manifest levels of Compassion that would have us be not only egoistic but also altruistic too, a mix. To differentiate from her NoM I have proposed in my writings a "Nature of Us" , the NoU, which recognises this trait.
And yeah, I've sparred with Randians over this point and others, especially the idea that "selfishness" is a virtue. I accept that humans are instinctively rationally self-interested, and that makes the world/work work. That's not the same thing as selfishness.
Beautiful article. I hadn't heard the concept fleshed out this nicely before.
Thanks for the kind word. You just made my day. :-)
Wow, you have written a superb article here ... Compassion needs to be especially embraced by libertarians who often far too many arise out of Ayn Rand's condemnation of altruism as immoral. Compassion is an attribute of the Nature of Man, the NoM, that she unfortunately disregards ... Effectively ... It is a trait that was naturally selected and a statistical sample of Compassion would manifest as a Gaussian random distribution with a mean and a standard deviation whereby within two standard deviations of the mean about 95% of us would naturally manifest levels of Compassion that would have us be not only egoistic but also altruistic too, a mix. To differentiate from her NoM I have proposed in my writings a "Nature of Us" , the NoU, which recognises this trait.
Yep, Compassion is not a weakness.
And yeah, I've sparred with Randians over this point and others, especially the idea that "selfishness" is a virtue. I accept that humans are instinctively rationally self-interested, and that makes the world/work work. That's not the same thing as selfishness.
Ah, music to my ears ... 😊👍👌
I agree. Compassion is a stellar quality. Perhaps, a cousin to kindness? I'll get the book you recommend. Thank you!
It's a masterpiece.
thanks for writing this.