Ethics, values, and morals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics, values, and morals - Essay ExampleFor Rands line of reasoning, if whiz is to follow his or her hierarchy of values, then there would be no chance to lose ones self-importance- respect by saving anything of lesser value or helping ones neighbor. Even love was merely defined as validation of loving ones self as an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to ones own values in the person of another. For Rand, charity does not exist because one should and act in accordance to ones self-interest which personally thinks to be wrong. In fact, true benevolence or act of charity or goodwill is being destroyed by altruism because it indoctrinated men that to value another which is just a license to sacrifice oneself and that love, respect or esteem held for other people is not a source of ones enjoyment.Rand did not differentiate altruism whether it is ideal or reciprocal. For Rand, altruism by itself makes the means suffer the consequence of lack of self-esteem and lack of respect for others. To quote Rand on this, she elaborated that Many well-meaning, reasonable men do not issue how to identify or conceptualize the moral principles that motivate their love, affection or good will, and can find no guidance in the field of ethics, which is predominate by the stale platitudes of altruism. In effect, Rand is implying man cannot distinguish what really altruism because its platitudes are unrecognizable. Rather, she made a sweeping generalization that altruism whether ideal or reciprocal reduces man to a beggar and that the giver in fact lacks self-esteem. She describes altruism as an act of betrayal of ones values because it demands the drop of a greater value for the sake of lesser or non-value which is not consistent to the ideal actuation of acting according to the hierarchy of ones values, that is, never to sacrifice a greater value to a lesser value. This hierarchy of values is