[fortheDeclaration]

I think Rand should've called it "enlightened self-interest" vs. "self-sacrifice" or "self-abnegation". Instead she named the fight as "selfishness" vs. "altruism".

I agree the terminology is hard to deal with.

One has to read her to understand where she was coming from.

One cannot say I love you without the I.

The great enemy she was going against was Kant, who taught that an act is only a virtue when one's highest values are given up.

So a husband must save an unknown woman and allow his own wife to drown.

If he saves his wife (even at the risk of his own life) it is not considered a virtue, but scorned as being 'selfish'.

You can see the roots of Nazi Germany and Communism in that philosophy.

[jennyp]

Yes, Kant's ethics are a disaster!

[buwaya]

I don't think Kant would have agreed on this specific example (he probably would have written some unreadable quibble defining a loophole).

But otherwise you are right - the philosopher cannot control his idea, and the general trend of this analysis, and of the idea of a godless ethics in general, was not a good thing.