Free Republic

In modern America, February 2 is best known as Groundhog Day. But it also marks the birth of one of the most praised and criticized thinkers of the past century – Ayn Rand. Rand sold more than 30 million books. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as an influence on readers’ lives. She has also been stridently attacked for issues such as her militant atheism. But perhaps least understood has been her full-bore rejection of altruism. On her birthday, it is worth reconsideration. Altruism has commonly been held up as the standard for moral behavior. But Rand...

*I posted the article below on my Facebook page a couple days ago. I got a lot of feedback and the post generated a massive amount of commentary. Several people asked me to expand upon my original post and turn it into an article on my site for those who don’t follow Facebook. That’s what I’ve done. The original post is first and then I answer a couple reader questions at the end. -Greg While I was at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference last weekend, I attended a class called “Surviving Extreme Events” taught by John Holschen. I’ve taken several of...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, one of the largest secular groups in America, announced it is erecting 11 different billboards across Chicago this week with various messages. Some of the ads ask people to "think for (themselves)," while others argue that kindness "comes from altruism" and not from "seeking divine reward." "Research shows that atheists and other nonbelievers remain at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to social acceptance. One reason for that is that even though at least 20% of the population today is nonreligious in the United States, many Americans have never knowingly met an...

“Earnestness is stupidity sent to college,” quoth the wise and well-traveled wit P.J. O’Rourke. The line would seem to fit many adherents of the Effective Altruism movement, a trendy subset of the philanthropy world.... The movement’s intellectual guru, Peter Singer [is] best known for his support of infanticide, bestiality (and other forms of “animal liberation”), and necrophilia (as long as it’s consensual).... [There is a] near-perfect parallel between (1) a passage in Singer’s Practical Ethics that justifies killing a disabled infant in hopes of someday having another child “with better prospects of a happy life,” and (2) a historical account...

Good economic policy accords with human nature. This is why governments and societies which respect capitalism succeed, and those which see capitalism as bad, fail. Rational self-interest (not greed, which is excessive self-interest) is part of human nature, and it is normal and healthy. Altruism is healthy, too, and on a higher plane, spiritually, than normal self-interest, but you can’t help another person unless you first have something to help them with–have enough of your own primary needs sufficiently met, in order to be able to donate or exchange any kind of goods (material or intangible) at all; to be...

Helping another person even when doing so could adversely affect you is considered a virtue by many. People are often applauded as heroes, as they should be, when they help others. But what happens when a well-intended action results in unanticipated harm? Expand that thought one more step: What is the effect if the resulting harm should have been known, but the persons taking action out of supposed "altruism" based their actions on emotions rather than on data? They meant to help, but they ended up hurting someone or some group -- either themselves, the intended beneficiary of the action...

I’m in Monaco for the 10th forum of the Convention of Independent Financial Advisors, a Swiss-based NGO that focuses on promoting an ethical and productive environment for private investment. I moderated a couple of panels on interesting topics, including the European fiscal crisis. But I want to focus on the comments of another speaker, Monsieur Matthieu Ricard, a French-born Buddhist monk. As you can see from his Wikipedia entry, he’s a very impressive individual. In addition to his other accomplishments, he serves as the French translator for the Dalai Lama.During one of the dinners, we got into a fascinating conversation...

I have no idea whether Charles Dickens, if he were alive today, would have joined the Occupy Wall Street movement. Given the revulsion he expressed when America’s riff-raff had the temerity to become overly familiar on his two visits to this country, one may doubt his commitment to overthrowing society’s class structure. Despite this, he may still be considered among the movement’s intellectual forerunners. For it was he, in the person of his literary creation Ebenezer Scrooge, who gave the world a character who embodied all of the evil traits the Occupiers attribute to today’s 1 percent. In fact, Scrooge...

What do colon cancer, ant colonies, language and global warming have in common? This might sound like the front end of a joke, but in fact it’s a serious challenge to the standard view of evolution. Martin A. Nowak, the director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard, has devoted a brilliant career to showing that Darwin, and particularly his followers, batted only two for three. Random mutation and natural selection have indeed been powerful motors for change in the natural world — the struggle for existence pitting the fit against the fitter in a hullabaloo of rivalry. But...

BALTIMORE — Maryland Lottery officials said the pastor of a struggling parish recently came across a generous donation in the collection plate — a $30,000 scratch-off ticket. Lottery officials didn't release the name of the church but did say the ticket had been scratched off when it was placed in the collection plate earlier this month. The pastor found the ticket when tallying that Sunday's contributions.

Mrs Blair was merely performing an unpaid kindness in Albania, says Matthew Norman.Amid all the excitement of Eamonn Holmes's pioneering legal battle to stop the BBC broadcasting jokes about his obesity, and with Keith Chegwin under fire for nicking other people's gags, you could be forgiven for having missed the really significant comedic news of the week. In what leading scholars of mirth posit as Britain's most valuable comic export to that country since Norman Wisdom, Cherie Blair went to Albania. The great altruist made the trip, as you may already have guessed, to pay homage to her Albanian role...

I think this is something we all need to consider. Liberals and socialists like to talk about altruism and making everything "fair". I think not.

A Noxious 2,400-year old lie, originated by Plato, still cripples us today. And, once more, Karl R. Popper comes to the rescue. Popper has examined, in great detail the writings of Plato. He concludes that Plato, and later thinkers and writers that followed Plato have wreaked havoc in science politics and philosophy down through the centuries. Popper presents the following small table of word definitions. The two columns have opposite definitions .i.e., individualism is the opposite of collectivism. Egotism is the opposite of altruism. Individualism Collectivism egotism altruism To see the whole post:Click here

Although plants have the ability to sense and respond to other plants, their ability to recognize kin and act altruistically has been the subject of few studies. The authors explored kin recognition in Impatiens pallida (yellow jewelweed). By moving their resources into leaves, these plants not only positively affected their own growth, but also negatively affected their competitors' growth. This is the first instance where researchers demonstrated that a plant's response to an aboveground cue is dependent upon the presence of a belowground cue. The concept of altruism has long been debated in philosophical circles, and more recently, evolutionary biologists...

Morality is both a universal and a surprising fact about human nature. When I say that morality is universal I am not referring to this or that moral code. In fact, I am not referring to an external moral code at all. Rather, I am referring to morality as the voice within, the interior source that Adam Smith called the “impartial spectator.” Morality in this sense is an uncoercive but authoritative judge. It has no power to compel us, but it speaks with unquestioned authority. Of course we can and frequently do reject what morality commands, but when we do...

The morally ugly nature of actual altruism was on display when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently declared that one in ten doses of the Swine Flu vaccine that were purchased with American taxpayer dollars will be given to other countries before there is enough vaccine to cover the health needs of Americans. She explained that “There’s an agreement (on a) ten percent donation that eleven nations have made.” Once 40 million doses have been produced and distributed in the United States, then ten percent of what’s produced will be donated even as the U.S. government waits for...

Sebelius Says U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s DemandThursday, October 22, 2009 By Chris Neefus      ....... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebilius why the United States should get vaccinations ahead of people in other countries, including those in countries that are producing the vaccine for the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)When Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) had his turn to question Sebelus, he raised the issue of whether the United States was "entitled" to the vaccine more than other nations. "Why should we be more entitled, the U.S. be more   entitled to...

It’s no secret that Michael Moore hates economic liberty; the theme of his movie Capitalism: A Love Story is that the free market is evil. But unlike most on the extreme left, Moore attempts to justify his views based on his Christian Catholic religion. Moore asks, “Would Jesus be a capitalist?” He answers that capitalism “is opposite everything that Jesus ... taught” and that all religions are clear about one thing: “It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over.” (Sadly, he’s ignoring the fact that wealth isn’t a static...

Somali pirate groups have reiterated their threat to respond to activities carried out in Somali waters by French and American warships. About 11 Somali pirates arrested by the French will be taken to a Kenyan court. The spokesman of the Somali pirate groups, Sugule Ali who gave an interview to Somalilandpress, said they are planning to defend themselves from foreign warships carrying out operations in order to fight pirates who became famous for the hijacking ships off Somalia. Ali threatened that they will take a serious step, and will target French and American warships. He expressed sadness following the killing...

ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2009) — One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist. Cooperative behavior has puzzled biologists because if only the fittest survive, genes for a behavior that benefits everybody in a population should not last and cooperative behavior should die out, says Jeff Gore, a Pappalardo postdoctoral fellow in MIT's Department of Physics. Gore is part of a team of MIT researchers that has used game theory to understand one solution yeast use to get around this...