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There's that misunderstanding -- again.

It is not 'happiness' that is Rand's highest good.

(Forgive me for repeating this *yet* again, but . . .)

Consider the man who is happiest eating cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is acting *against* his own self interest and long-term happiness (destroying his health).

I'm really surprised, how can such a simple thing be so widely misunderstood?

Consider the man who is happiest eating cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is acting *against* his own self interest and long-term happiness (destroying his health)

But this still reduces happiness to the having of certain sensations. What about Aristotle's statement in the Nicomachean Ethics that "we cannot call a man happy until he is dead?"

Happiness is a vague idea, but I'd say it's more specific than self-interest, which looks like a particularly abstract formula that doesn't answer real questions about just what the nature of the good we are to pursue is. To leave the answer at "pursue your own self-interest" looks a lot like an empty tautology, like "maximize utility." To go beyond that empty formula and explain just what "self-interest" is suggests that "pursue your self-interest" isn't enough or isn't the best formulation of the principle.

Either there is a goal or purpose to human life that lies behind "self-interest" or there isn't. If there is such a goal, then wouldn't the pursuit of that goal be the purpose of life, rather than just self-interest. If there isn't such a goal or purpose, then the pursuit of self-interest may well be our highest goal, but that doesn't tell us much about what we should do. So what is one's "self-interest," and how much freedom is there to disagree about just what one's true self-interest may be?

Alternatively, there may be no one purpose or goal or standard of value. I may resist attempts to force me to make sacrifices for some presumed common good, yet still praise those who, at critical moments in history, have made just such sacrifices. Self-sacrifice shouldn't be made the end of our existence, but civilization owes much to those who sacrificed their lives for it. I don't think Rand would disagree with this, though she might try to fudge things to preserve her slogans.